fool
n.
1. One who is deficient in judgment, sense, or understanding.
2. One who acts unwisely on a given occasion.
http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/f/f0233900.html

At a gathering of North Portland leaders last week, Jeff Cogen, candidate for Multnomah county commissioner, asked the question that a growing number of people in Multnomah county and Washington D.C. are asking, "Why is Portland's mayor, Tom Potter, continuing to withhold HAP's public statistical data from citizens, voters, taxpayers, elected officials, candidates for public office, academics, politicos and the press? It makes no sense." Exactly right Jeff. It makes no sense - unless it's a coverup of incompetence or wrongdoing.

In July, HAP told Portland city commissioner Sam Adams that it could provide statistical data for all of its clients that included a neighborhood field. HAP told Adams that it had discussed a contract with our regional government, Metro, to make the address to neighborhood conversion for about three hundred dollars. That's right, $300. Years of refusal to supply this information based on a $300 expense. Truly mind boggling. Sam instructed HAP to proceed and spend the $300 to produce the data and then give it to him. HAP did nothing. Why is that Tom?

Commissioner Sam Adams has been exceedingly patient in his legitimate and responsible quest to bring this public statistical data to the public table for public discussion and debate. But even Sam's patience will come to an end. Adams is working hard to do the job the mayor of Portland is supposed to be doing. Perhaps we should be thinking about giving Sam the title that goes with his efforts.

On September 10th I asked HAP/Mayor Potter for HAP's current statistical data. Below is a copy of that request and HAP's response. A small representative sample of HAP Watcher recipients was chosen to see the request and receive, unfiltered, whatever response HAP sent me. On September 15th HAP sent me and them no data but rather worn out, unconvincing letters from Tom Potter and Kandis Nunn that were written to me many months ago. Why is that Tom? Do you think that refusing to give this public statistical data to Earl Blumenauer, Ted Wheeler, Jeff Cogen, Renee Mitchell, Rob Manning, Anna Griffin, Ryan Frank et al. will go unnoticed?

With no data to send HAP reached into the garbage to find two letters that are so embarassing to Tom Potter and Kandis Nunn that it is truly amazing that HAP would choose to make them public. 

The Kandis Nunn letter attached to the Potter/HAP response is from March 2004 and makes no sense in this context. If HAP had attached Nunn's May 31, 2006 letter then the reader would have noticed the inherent absurd argument that the status of HAP clients - the total number of clients, their ages, their residences, their incomes - won't ever change so that once a person has been given HAP statistical data it will never again be necessary to update that information. The staff letter below echos the same bizarre, indefensible "reasoning." [You need to be rich to be HAP chair not smart.]

The Potter letter attached to the Potter/HAP response is dated December 2005. It cites Potter's disingenuous and totally unsubstantiated claim that he has all the data necessary to monitor and enforce public housing policy in Multnomah county. It is not possible to honestly and intelligently make such a statement when:
A. Potter cannot show evidence that he even knows the total number of HAP clients. [HAP itself only guesses between 31,000 and 33,000.]
B. Potter cannot show evidence that he is in possession of HAP's public statistical data which would include authentic, accurate, complete and timely records for all of HAP's approximately 33,000 clients.
C. Potter cannot show evidence that he knows the percentage of public housing clients in the Portsmouth neighborhood or any neighborhood in Multnomah county.
D. Potter cannot show evidence that the four leading creators of the Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Report  would testify that the HAP maps, charts, diagrams etc. in the report were based on authentic, accurate, complete and timely records for all of HAP's approximately 33,000 clients. [The authors of the AI Report have been unwilling to jeopardize their professional reputations by vouching for the credibility of the data presented to them by HAP.]
E. Potter cannot show evidence that he knows how the Housing and Community Development Commission can proceed to present for public discussion before the Portland and Gresham city councils and the Multnomah county commission the 3-6-9 Resolution which is on their agenda as a result of adopting the Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Report and requires authentic, accurate, complete and timely data from HAP which neither HCDC nor the mayor's office, nor anyone else has in their possession.
F. Potter cannot make the case that it is only necessary for he alone to be "satisfied" with HAP's public statistical data. In our American democracy public policy is supposed to be determined by public dialogue, public discussion and public debate based on shared common knowledge of public data not by privately induced mayoral visions, mayoral proclamations and mayoral fiat.

Tom Potter has not yet come to grips with the facts that the $200,000,000 spent annually on public housing in Multnomah county does not come out of Tom Potter's wallet. The statistical data resident on HAP's computers is not Tom Potter's private property. Both the dollars and the data belong to us, the citizens, voters and taxpayers of Multnomah county. We want the statistical data to show what we're buying. We want it now and updated on a regular basis.

Potter's failure with regard to his fiduciary responsibility to guide, supervise and coordinate the annual spending on public housing of $200,000,000 in public funds is a result of his own self-inflicted ignorance.   This incompetence has now crossed the line into Tom Foolery.

"Back in medieval times it was considered great sport to watch the antics of insane people in asylums like Bedlam in London. The nickname 'Tom Fool' was often used for male inmates who were favorites of the audience. Over the centuries the word 'tomfoolery' evolved, eventually acquiring the relatively innocuous meaning it has today."
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/13/messages/1303.html

Despite the dubious or perhaps delicious entertainment value, nobody wants a fool for a mayor or a president. Tom, please heed the first rule of holes. When you find yourself in one stop digging. It's time to climb out and deliver the data to the audience.


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.

*************************************************************************************************************************
From: Richard Ellmyer
Date: September 10, 2006 3:06:23 PM PDT
To: HAP Board
Cc: Tom Potter, Sam Adams, Tom Miller, Jeff Cogen, Ted Wheeler, Charles Becker, Shane Bemis, David Wu, Earl Blumenauer, Hillary Barbour, Rebecca Thomas, Loretta Smith, Greg Walden, Darlene Hooley,  Peter Defazio, Mike Sheehan, Ryan Frank, Tom Griffin, Nevill Eschen, Cathy MacFarlane, Anna Griffin, Cornelius Swart, Steve Beaven, Roy A. Bernardi, Elizabeth Santone, Meg Merrick, Tiffaney O'Dell, Sandy Rowe, Henry Stern, Nick Budnick, Mark Zusman, Ethan Seltzer, James Moore, Lawrence Wallack, Roberta Ando, Renee Mitchell, Wendy Radmacher-Willis, David Pool, Mike Burton, Kim Snyder, Alphanso Jackson, Rob Manning, Doug Bates
Subject: HAP Statistical Data

When There Is No Data There Is No Public Policy

Hi HAP Board:
As a citizen, voter and taxpayer of Multnomah County I am requesting authentic, accurate, complete and timely statistical data in the form of a tab delimited text file which includes the following four fields: age, gender, neighborhood and income, for all of HAP's approximately 33,000 clients. As the writer and publisher of HAP Watchers I am requesting that this information be delivered to me via email before my next deadline at 5 PM on Friday September 15th.

Although I will alert my 13,000 readers to whatever response you provide I would ask that you also send your reply to all of those copied above. I have chosen a small number of players that have an interest in public housing policy in Multnomah County to receive whatever your responses might be - unfiltered.

In addition, I remind you of the following:
1. In January 2005 Portland mayor Tom Potter announced that he had asked HAP if it could provide neighborhood fields in their statistical data and HAP's reply was "yes."
2. In July of 2006 Portland city commissioner Sam Adams was informed that HAP could provide neighborhood fields in their statistical data by asking Metro to process its client database at a cost of about $300. To the best of my knowledge commissioner Adams instructed HAP to proceed.
3. The Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Report, which was adopted by the Housing Community Development Commission and sent on to HUD, includes an agenda item to present and discuss with the City of Portland, the City of Gresham and the Multnomah County Commission the ideas and goals inherent within the 3-6-9 Resolution. This cannot be accomplished without authentic, accurate, complete and timely statistical data from the Housing Authority of Portland.
4. HAP commissioners serve at the pleasure of the mayor of Portland, currently Tom Potter. Whatever responses HAP's board members make to my request, and I'm asking each individual member of the board for this statistical data, they will be considered officially sanctioned by mayor Potter.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this deadline driven request.

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.


###########################################################################################

From:   Board@hapdx.org
Subject: Re: HAP Statistical Data
Date: September 15, 2006 2:29:00 PM PDT
To:   ellmyer@macsolve.com
Cc: Tom Potter, Sam Adams, Tom Miller, Jeff Cogen, Ted Wheeler, Charles Becker, Shane Bemis, David Wu, Earl Blumenauer, Hillary Barbour, Rebecca Thomas, Loretta Smith, Greg Walden, Darlene Hooley,  Peter Defazio, Mike Sheehan, Ryan Frank, Tom Griffin, Nevill Eschen, Cathy MacFarlane, Anna Griffin, Cornelius Swart, Steve Beaven, Roy A. Bernardi, Elizabeth Santone, Meg Merrick, Tiffaney O'Dell, Sandy Rowe, Henry Stern, Nick Budnick, Mark Zusman, Ethan Seltzer, James Moore, Lawrence Wallack, Roberta Ando, Renee Mitchell, Wendy Radmacher-Willis, David Pool, Mike Burton, Kim Snyder, Alphanso Jackson, Rob Manning, Doug Bates

Dear Richard:

Kandis Brewer Nunn, chair of the Housing Authority's Board of
Commissioners, asked that I respond to your September 11 email to the
HAP board that requested certain data.

As you know, we responded to this request quite some time ago.  For the
benefit of those you copied on your email to our Board, I've attached a
letter Ms. Nunn sent you after she became chair that explains our
position on this request.  I've also attached an email that Mayor Potter
sent you after the completion of the Analysis of Impediments to Fair
Housing that says he is satisfied that the information provided by the
agencies involved, including HAP, is "appropriate and ample for good
public conversation about housing location policy and practice."

I am happy to answer any questions anyone copied on this email may have
about HAP's response to this information request or the same requests
that have come before it.

Shelley

[Attached letters removed do to size limitation and a general reluctance to add attachments of any kind to HAP Watcher commentaries. HAP would most likely provide copies upon request.]