At 10:30 AM on Tuesday, June 6th governor Ted Kulongoski is scheduled to give a speech at Columbia Villa praising the Housing Authority of Portland for its good work in spending our public tax dollars. I will be there with a big sign that reads, "Ted - Will you help us find HAP's "LOST" 23,000 ?" If you can spare an hour or so please join me. Tuesday's weather forecast is sunny although it is expected to rain on parades in Pottersville and Kulongoski county. Bring a sign or badge with the number 23,000. Find me and introduce yourself. We'll talk about:

How democracy rests on the ability of the governed to check their leaders through reasoned argument.

Governor Kulongoski, who was alerted many times and yet refused to discuss or even acknowledge the fact that the Housing Authority of Portland claims to have both 32,000 and 33,000 clients but can only produce fewer than 10,000 individual client records when asked by elected officials, candidates for public office, voters, taxpayers and the 700,000 citizens of Multnomah county.

Governor Kulongoski's status with regard to mayor Potter's double standard for publishing HAP's public data. Portland city commissioner Sam Adams (who continues to fight the good fight on behalf of his constituents - thank you Sam) gets one kind of access to HAP's public data and everybody else gets another kind. [This will certainly change for Ted Wheeler. It's much tougher to deny authentic, accurate, complete and timely public records to the Multnomah County Chair-elect than Ted Wheeler candidate for public office. Wheeler certainly understands the necessity to have good data before you climb a mountain or make a huge financial investment, especially with other people's money. 70% of the voters in Multnomah county believe he will bring his private sector attention to detail, gathering good data and accountability with him to his new public job.]

Governor Kulongoski's willingness to introduce legislation that would transfer the power to nominate and dismiss HAP commissioners from the mayor of Portland to a public official elected by all the voters in the 117 neighborhoods affected by HAP's public spending and decision making, namely, the Multnomah County Chair.

Mayor Potter's answer to the question, How many HAP clients do you think there are and can you produce the public evidence to prove it?

Mayor Potter's disbelief in the concept of "stale" data and his defense of the statistical improbability that  none of the 9947 HAP clients that are listed in the data file I received on April 26 have had birthdays, moved, or had a change in income status in more than a month.

Mayor Potter's explanations for HAP's records which show head of households including a one year old male with an income of $9,984 - a 10 year old female with an income of $27,325 and a thirty year old female with an income of $74,362. [Does the word audit come to mind?]

Mayor Potter's 16 month unexplained, indefensible, suspicious, trust reducing and investigation provoking refusal to direct HAP in writing to provide public housing data by neighborhood despite the fact that Potter announced on January 26, 2005 that he had received notification from HAP that it could produce public housing data by neighborhood and that he would follow up with a letter making such a request. Potter is well aware that HAP's board is on record as of their public November 2005 meeting that they will not provide public housing data by neighborhood to anyone, including Portland city commissioner Sam Adams, Multnomah county chair-elect Ted Wheeler, the Gresham city council, Jeff Cogen - candidate for Multnomah county commission position#2 which includes the neighborhoods with the highest concentrations of HAP clients in Multnomah county, the Multnomah county commission, state senator Ginny Burdick, any member of the Oregon legislature, governor Kulongoski, Republican candidate for governor Ron Saxton, representative Earl Blumenauer, senators Wyden and Smith and any member of Oregon's press corps, without a written instruction from the mayor. It's unclear how city commissioners Sten, Leonard and Saltzman, who have voted to confirm HAP appointed commissioners, would be treated since none of them has ever shown an interest in asking for the data.

The Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing report and why none of the principals involved in its creation can provide evidence that the maps, charts, graphs, statistics and conclusions related to the Housing Authority of Portland involved all 33,000 records of HAP's client database and that all of the data used was "fresh" i.e. gathered within one month of submission to the report makers. Reports of any kind purporting to show HAP's public housing data by neighborhood without providing the underlying data file to substantiate their validity are meaningless. Paper reports of dynamic populations are out of date before they are printed. Without the regular updating and publishing of client records it is impossible to discern trends, make reasonable educated forecasts, correct errors and develop credible evidenced based public housing policy which is understandable and reviewable by both public officials and voters.

The portland branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the recent public exposure of its interest in potential misbehavior in Portland's city government. No need for spies or an undercover fishing expedition. Tom Potter, with the acquiescence of his colleagues Erik Sten, Randy Leonard and Dan Saltzman, is directing the withholding of 23,000 public records and the coverup of HAP's abysmal bookkeeping from elected officials, candidates for public office, voters, taxpayers and the FBI. Those records must be connected to roughly $66,000,000 in federal and other public fund transactions. The public circumstances cry out for investigation of potential waste, fraud and abuse. Want background information. Call me. I'll be glad to help you. Quite publicly. 

How the bottom line remains the same. HAP claims that it has 33,000 clients. Therefore, HAP MUST produce 33,000 client records that include age, gender, neighborhood and income. Period.

A government has no asset more precious than public trust. Mayor Tom Potter is squandering that public trust by his irresponsible job performance with regard to guiding, supervising and coordinating the annual spending of $200,000,000 of public funds by 29 public housing commissioners that serve at his pleasure. 

So join me at the WorkSource Portland Metro North Center on Trenton street in Columbia Villa at 10:30 AM Tuesday June 6th. Bring a sign or badge with the number 23,000. Find me and introduce yourself. I'm told there may be refreshments.


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, 15% and rising, within HAP's Multnomah county jurisdiction of 117 neighborhoods.