Cogen, Pung, Leuenberger Ask for Answers - Becker, Bemis et al. Seek State of Denial

Cogen, Pung, Leuenberger Ask for Answers - Becker, Bemis et al. Seek State of Denial 10/9/06

Candidates for public office Jeff Cogen, Bob Pung and James Leuenberger speak out in support of a truth - You Can't Make Good Public Policy Without Good Public Data.

To the contrary, there is an extraordinary amount of well documented evidence that American president Geroge W. Bush and Portland mayor Tom Potter have both chosen self-inflicted ignorance to make decisions, respectively, about the engagement and prosecution of a war in Iraq and a location policy for public housing clients in Multnomah county. More troublesome is that these elected officials continue to use their power to deny their constituents and colleagues critical information necessary for voters and other public officials to make informed, educated decisions. American democracy cannot thrive with this kind of public "leadership."

Below is information relating to candidates for public office and their approach to public housing policy in Multnomah county.

Jeff Cogen, Candidate For Multnomah County Commission District 2
Jeff Cogen asked the Housing Authority of Portland for public statistical data during the primary election and got nothing. Now he asks again, clearly demonstrating that when elected he intends to make good public policy based on good public data. Here is the evidence.

From: jeff.cogen@gmail.com
Subject: Request for Public Housing Data
Date: September 26, 2006 2:48:50 PM PDT
To: board@hapdx.org

Dear HAP Board:
As a candidate for the Multnomah County Commission I regularly have discussions with people in my district regarding public housing policy. In order to engage in these policy discussions in a meaningful way, I need to have access to data regarding the distribution of public housing in our community. To facilitate this, can you please provide me with a tab delimited text file consisting of current information regarding HAP's 33,000 clients divided into four fields - age, gender, neighborhood and income.

Thank you.

Jeff Cogen
Candidate, Multnomah County Commission District 2

[Jeff Cogen has my vote.]

Gresham Voters Beware
Portland mayor Tom Potter and those that serve at his pleasure as appointed HAP commissioners have an operational policy of concentrating public housing clients into just a few of Multnomah county's 117 neighborhoods. They are able to execute this undisclosed policy by keeping public statistical data from the voters as well as overloading neighborhoods with public housing clients that offer no resistance and are governed by public officials that aren't paying attention or don't care. With the notable exception of Bob Pung, all of the candidates for Gresham city government meet this criteria of disinterest in public housing policy which will leave certain neighborhoods in Gresham vulnerable to Portland's mayor's undetectable public housing location schemes.

The following are questions asked of candidates for public office in the city of Gresham:
1. Gresham voters cannot vote for the only elected official, Portland's mayor, that has the statutory power to nominate and dismiss commissioners of the Housing Authority of Portland. HAP is a public entity that will spend hundrerds of millions of taxpayer dollars during a commissioner's tenure within HAP's geographical boundaries that include several neighborhoods in Gresham. Would you agree that Gresham voters should have the same rights as Portland voters to elect the public official (the county wide elected Multnomah county chair) that has the power to determine how and where public housing dollars are spent in Gresham?
Yes: Bob Pung
No: Charles Becker - Shane Bemis - John Kilian - Bryant Lister - Mike Mattingly - Carol Nielsen-Hood - Richard Strathern

2. The Housing Authority of Portland is currently unable to produce evidence certifying the total number of its clients. Would you agree that HAP's estimate of between 31,000 and 33,000 clients is unacceptable and an indisputable indication of a data deficit indicating serious huge gaps in its statistical database which must be filled?
Yes: Bob Pung
No: Charles Becker - Shane Bemis - John Kilian - Bryant Lister - Mike Mattingly - Carol Nielsen-Hood - Richard Strathern

3. The public jurisdictions within Multnomah county, including Gresham, are without a public housing policy because there is insufficient data to monitor and enforce the so-called yet non-existent policy of distribution not concentration of public housing clients in the 117 neighborhoods of Multnomah county. Can you show evidence that you have requested authentic, accurate, complete and timely public statistical data from HAP in the form of a tab delimited text file with four fields, age - gender - neighborhood - income, that upon receipt you would share with Gresham voters to promote informed discussion and decision making?
Yes: Bob Pung
No: Charles Becker - Shane Bemis - John Kilian - Bryant Lister - Mike Mattingly - Carol Nielsen-Hood - Richard Strathern

4. The need to quantify public housing policy in Multnomah county is obvious. To that end the ideas and goals of the 3-6-9 Resolution were included within the Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Report and adopted as an agenda item by the Housing and Community Development Commission of Portland. If elected, will you bring the 3-6-9 Resolution before the Gresham city council for public discussion and debate within the first six months of your term in office?
Yes: Bob Pung
No: Charles Becker - Shane Bemis - John Kilian - Bryant Lister - Mike Mattingly - Carol Nielsen-Hood - Richard Strathern

5. A vacant seat on the HAP board will allow the Gresham city council to ask Portland's mayor to nominate a candidate for that position. Will you require of the Gresham nominee for the vacant HAP commissioner seat that he or she:
A. Supports the Multnomah county chair as the rightful public official to have the power to nominate and dismiss HAP appointees?
Yes: Bob Pung
No: Charles Becker - Shane Bemis - John Kilian - Bryant Lister - Mike Mattingly - Carol Nielsen-Hood - Richard Strathern
B. Shows evidence that the candidate has requested public housing data from HAP?
Yes: Bob Pung
No: Charles Becker - Shane Bemis - John Kilian - Bryant Lister - Mike Mattingly - Carol Nielsen-Hood - Richard Strathern
C. Supports the presentation of the 3-6-9 Resolution to the city of Gresham, city of Portland, and the Multnomah county commission?
Yes: Bob Pung
No: Charles Becker - Shane Bemis - John Kilian - Bryant Lister - Mike Mattingly - Carol Nielsen-Hood - Richard Strathern

[Note to Gresham voters. As always, you are encouraged to contact these candidates to verify and discuss their positions on the issues mentioned above.

Note to the Gresham Outlook and other media organizations with an audience in Gresham. There is a story here.

I can't vote in Gresham elections but if I could I would cast a ballot for Bob Pung.]

James Leuenberger, Circuit Court Candidate, 4th District, Position 28
Most voters have a hard enough time deciding who will best represent them on a city council, school board, state legislature etc. When it comes to marking the circle next to some candidate for judge only the legal cognoscenti have any idea for whom they are voting. For the rest of us, we have barely a clue. With that in mind consider James Leuenberger's comments.

I am well aware of the current law on judicial candidates' right to speak on issues.

Having never dealt with the Housing Authority of Portland, I have no knowledge about its duty to communicate. I do know however that Oregon's public records law is a valuable tool for prying information from public bodies.

It would seem that statistical data should be provided by any public body, voluntarily and without a public records request. If a public records request is made for statistical information, I should think the public body would be required to produce it quickly.

[James Leuenberger has my vote.]

Richard Ellmyer Invokes Public Records Law
Subject: Let The Sunshine Of Oregon's Public Records Law Heat HAP
Date: September 25, 2006 9:27:30 AM PDT
To: HAP Commissioners
Cc: Sam Adams, Charles Becker, Shane Bemis, Gary Blackmer, Earl Blumenauer, Bob Caldwell, Steve Clark, Jeff Cogen, David Dean, Peter DeFazio, Lavonne Griffin-Valade, Darlene Hooley, Interested Parties, Rob Manning, Tifanny O'dell, Connie Pickett, Tom Potter, Sandy Rowe, Mike Schrunk, Gordon Smith, Henry Stern, Cornelius Swart, Greg Walden, Ted Wheeler, David Wu, Ron Wyden, Mark Zusman

Kandis Nunn - Jeff Bachrach - Richard Fernández - Catherine Such - Harriet Cormack - Chris Lassen - Lee Moore - Gavin Thayer

Hi HAP Board:
For more than 5 1/2 years I have resisted numerous requests from HAP Watchers' readers to invoke the Oregon Public Records law to prod the unelected commissioners of the Housing Authority of Portland into making available HAP's statistical data. I have and will continue to argue that the issue of public access to public housing statistical data is a political not a legal matter. Nevertheless, we have come to a higher level of play in this game of, "Who Gets The Data?" More intense public spotlights are being added to the show which will allow an expanding audience to watch each one of you, and your director - Tom Potter, play out your roles of individual public accountability on a more brightly lit public stage.

An Oregon Public Records law request made now is not the end game but rather the beginning of a new round or, if you will, Act II. My requests below are not designed to get information that HAP knows and wants to conceal but rather to expose to public light for the purpose of public examination that which HAP and its leader, Portland's mayor Tom Potter, doesn't know in the way of HAP statistics. Once we all see what data cards HAP is holding and is not holding we can more productively argue the merits of a plan to direct HAP staff to find the missing pieces. Any organization that can only guess that it has between 31,000 and 33,000 clients has huge serious gaps in its statistical database that need filling.

1. Please provide copies of all documents in HAP's possession that were created on paper and electronically within the last five years that involve statistics related to the total number of HAP's client population.

2. Please provide copies of all documents in HAP's possession that were created on paper and electronically within the last five years that involve statistics related to the age of all HAP's client population.

3. Please provide copies of all documents in HAP's possession that were created on paper and electronically within the last five years that involve statistics related to the gender of all HAP's client population.

4. Please provide copies of all documents in HAP's possession that were created on paper and electronically within the last five years that involve statistics related to the neighborhood of all HAP's client population.

5. Please provide copies of all documents in HAP's possession that were created on paper and electronically within the last five years that involve statistics related to the income of all HAP's client population.

Please send these documents via email in a PDF or text file format to ellmyer@macsolve.com as soon as possible.

If there is a charge for this service please divide the invoice among all the members of Oregon's congressional delegation - Earl Blumanauer, Ron Wyden, Gordon Smith, Darlene Hooley, Greg Walden, David Wu, Peter DeFazio - that signed the June 15, 2001 letter to HUD exclaiming HAP's "exemplary" performace in support of an additional $35,000,000 in public funds destined for HAP. Each of these HAP benefactors would certainly want to justify their faith in HAP by assuring their constituents that their confidence in HAP's performance was and continues to be well founded on the evidence provided by HAP's statistical data.

Also include the office of mayor Potter for any fees that may be accrued in the process of satisfying this request for public records. As the elected public official with the job of guiding, supervising and coordinating the annual spending of $200,000,000 in public funds on public housing in Multnomah county's 117 neighborhoods mayor Potter would surely be interested in the results of your search. You may want to include copies of your response to Potter and all of Oregon's congressional delegation regardless of whether or not you send them a bill.

It should be clear to all of you by now that time is not on your side. With every election cycle new players arrive who do not understand and have limited tolerance for the indefensible reluctance of an appointed board to willfully withhold statistical data from the voters that is absolutely necessary for the development, monitoring and enforcing of public housing policy in our community. Jeff Cogen, candidate for Multnomah county commissioner, expressed the views of many thousands of Oregonians, "It Makes No Sense."

On September 18, 2006 I wrote a searing evidence-based inditement of mayor Potter and HAP chair Kandis Nunn called Tom Foolery that severely criticized their judgement and intelligence with regard to decisions involving public housing data. Not 1 in 13,000 recipients of this most recent and highly critical HAP Watchers commentary challenged a single fact or argument in the article. Nor did anyone come to the defense of Tom Potter or HAP. Not one. You may read into this what you will. I know what it means.

Portland city commissioner Sam Adams, Multnomah county chair-elect Ted Wheeler, candidate for Multnomah county commissioner Jeff Cogen, candidate for Gresham city councilor Bob Pung and the Housing and Community Development Commission et al. are interested in persuing public debate on the quantification of public housing policy in Multnomah county using the ideas and goals of the 3-6-9 Resolution as the basis for that discussion. In order to have this conversation HAP will eventually have to produce authentic, accurate, complete and timely records that would need to be updated on a regular basis. Supplying data only to HAP's funders will be neither relevant nor sufficient to satisfy the needs of elected officials, candidates for public office, academics, press, voters, taxpayers and citizens.

My intention is to call upon the Multnomah County District Attorney's office to arbitrate/enforce any requests for public data which I believe have gone unfulfilled.

Thank you for your prompt cooperation.

Richard Ellmyer
3-6-9 Resolution author and project champion
Writer/Publisher - HAP Watcher commentary - Published on the Internet and distributed to 13,000 readers interested in public housing policy in Multnomah County.
http://www.goodgrowthnw.org
President, MacSolutions Inc. - A Macintosh computer consulting business providing web hosting for artists and very small businesses. Located in Portsmouth, the neighborhood with the second highest concentration of public housing clients, 16% and rising, within HAP's Multnomah county jurisdiction of 117 neighborhoods.

[The answers to the following questions which are raised by this request for public information will be answered in the next HAP Watchers commentary.
1. Will any member of Oregon's congressional delegation, the Portland city council, the Gresham city council or the Multnomah county commission ask for this material and demand it for free as publicly elected officials and HAP benefactors?

2. Which of the following, Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio, Darlene Hooley, Tom Potter, Gordon Smith, Greg Walden, David Wu, Ron Wyden, will share payment of the cost to obtain this public statistical data if they can't get it for free?

3. Will the elected auditors of Portland, Gary Backmer, and Gresham, David Dean, and the auditor-elect of Multnomah county, Lavonne Griffin-Valade, recognize a responsibility to their constituents to bring the requested public statistical data to public attention through an audit of HAP's record keeping?]

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