Potter Opens HAP Data Spigot - But ONLY 10 of 32 Thousand Pour Out of the Computer 5/1/06

After 16 months in office mayor Tom Potter has finally asked/ordered HAP to release a computer file with HAP's public data on it only to find out that he and HAP had LOST, that's right - LOST - 22,000 client files that are NOT on HAP's computer. That translates into about $66,000,000 of unconnected financial transactions with taxpayer funds. This is no longer merely mismanagement by HAP's board nor lax oversight of HAP's obviousoly abysmal bookkeeping practices, this is official evidence of a potential scandal that could push the alleged theft of $1.4 million by West Linn's former finance director right off the front page. Tom Potter may toss West Linn's mayor into the footnote category and bring home the olympic gold to Portland for most negligent and irresponsible public official in Oregon.

Here's What They Asked For Months Ago
Candidates for public office - state senator Ginny Burdick, Ted Wheeler, Jeff Cogen, Jim Robison - and Portland City Commissioner Sam Adams asked for the following:
An authentic, accurate, complete and timely record for every HAP 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.

Here's What They Got
The first response from HAP to all of these requests ranged from no response to a few pieces of paper revealing nothing. That changed when Sam Adams met with HAP's chair, Kandis Nunn, and demanded the information. HAP delivered a pile of paper to Adams' office but no computer file. Virtually useless. When I demanded a tab delimited text file of whatever information HAP sent to Adams I got it and then so did Burdick, Wheeler et al. 

Upon examination of the file I found it unauthenticated, inaccurate, incomplete and untimely. Approximately 22,000 client records were missing. This revelation, though appalling, was not unexpected. It is very disturbing to observe that without Sam Adams' request, this public data would continue to be kept from other elected officials, candidates for public office, the voters and the taxpayers that pay HAP's bills. Adams asked for a computer file and instead got a packet of a paper. What is wrong with this picture? I have said for years that the Housing Authority of Portland is out of control and this surely proves it. Government agencies should not be run by unaccountable appointed officials who do public business on the premise that if they don't think you have enough political power to do them harm they can ignore your legitimate requests for public data.

Would You Like A Copy?
Send an email to Kandis Nunn <board@hapdx.org> requesting the tab delimited text file public housing data HAP has provided to Sam Adams, Ginny Burdick, Ted Wheeler et al. Data, like many other things in life, gets stale after a while. So get it while it's hot. This four field file contains 9947 records. It is easily imported into any database or spreadsheet. Find out what you, HAP and Tom Potter have been and still are missing. 

Portland Planning Commission Nixes Zip Code Relevancy
The Portland Planning Commission put the definitive kibosh on the notion that zip codes hold any weight in the planning process. Neither the commission members nor its staff could find a single shred of evidence in the history of the Portland Planning Commission that any issue was ever argued by a private citizen or government employee or any decision taken by the Portland Planning Commission based on zip codes.

However, when it came to neighborhoods, they said, "Neighborhood Associations play an important role in the bureau's public involvement and outreach efforts and in public hearings before the Planning
Commission"

So there you have it. Zip codes - USELESS for public policy making. Neighborhoods - USEFUL for public policy making.

Potter On The Hot Seat
Could there possibly be a more justifiable reason for Tom Potter to dismiss all of HAP's board then their neglect of duty to provide for themselves and taxpayers basic and essential computerized records for all of HAP's 32,000 clients and the audit trail which justifies the legitimacy and not the fraudulent nor wasteful expenditure of approximately $66,000,000 of public funds? 

Surely Potter does not expect Adams, Wheeler, Burdick, Cogen, Robison, Ellmyer, elected officials from East Multnomah County and 700,000 citizens of Multnomah county to allow him and the HAP board that serve at his pleasure to lose 22,000 public records without comment or consequences.

The fuss made about Multnomah County Chair Diane Linn "losing" a few meetings in her computer calendar will be nothing compared to the legal and political ramifications caused by announcing HAP's loss of 22,000 public records to HUD and its congressional oversight committees as well as governor Kulongoski and Oregon legislators that vote money to HAP and have the power to transfer the authority to nominate and dismiss HAP appointees from the mayor of Portland to a public official, namely, the Multnomah County Chair, elected by all the voters that are within HAP's jurisdiction.

Burdick and Sten
Elections are the time when voters get to examine those who want to spend the public purse and make decisions that affect our individual lives and our communities. Now that the evidence has been put on the public table challenger and state senator Ginny Burdick can stop the silliness of public outrage over some misplaced lawn signs and start acting like a serious candidate. Erik Sten has been the Portland city council's liaison to HAP for years. He has actively supported HAP's refusal to provide public housing data by neighborhood for years. It was Erik Sten who persuaded Potter to abandon his own directive to HAP to produce public housing data by neighborhood. If Burdick doesn't challenge Sten on this issue she will lose whatever remaining credibility she still has.

Fritz and Saltzman
For more than five years Dan Saltzman and Amanda Fritz have seen maps and charts, heard public testimony and read commentaries about public housing policy in Multnomah County from Richard Ellmyer. Amazingly, to this date neither of these candidates can figure out where they stand on public housing data by neighborhood. This pathetic indecisiveness goes way beyond procrastination. If neither one of them addresses the issue of the missing 22,000 public records and the $66,000,000 in public funds attached to those records then neither one of them deserve to be in public office.

Sam Adams
Finally, major kudos and a hugh debt of gratitude goes out to Portland City Commissioner Sam Adams for once again showing commitment and courage by asking for and getting more public housing data from HAP than any other elected official, candidate or citizen. Bravo Sam. Don't stop till you get it all.


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 13,000 readers interested in public housing policy in Multnomah County.
Portsmouth - formerly the 18%, currently the 10% and rising solution neighborhood, North Portland
http://www.goodgrowthnw.org

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