Dear Multnomah County District Attorney:
On May 15, 2007 I made a legitimate and legal demand on the Housing Authority of Portland for public records under the Oregon Public Records Law (see below). I reiterated that request on August 13, 2007 (see below). I understand that the Multnomah County District Attorney will not usually become involved in negotiation or enforcement of public records law demands unless the custodian of the data indicates that he will not comply. This denial is most ordinarily communicated in writing. However, in this case the HAP staff showed significant signs of cooperation in providing the requested public records until the HAP board chair, Jeff Bachrach, ordered the staff to withhold delivery of any and all of the requested public records. Jeff Bachrach's directive to HAP staff is tantamount to a letter of denial made directly to the citizen, Richard Ellmyer, who requested the public data. Therefore, I request that the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office immediately either compel or negotiate with the custodian of this public data, Jeff Bachrach, to produce the public records over which he has authority.
It is the intent of this request to require the Housing Authority of Portland to show evidence of its ability to produce a single computer database record for every individual client for which it provides public housing (means test + government subsidy + rental agreement). This amounts to approximately 33,000 client records. This request for public housing statistical data will not be fulfilled unless and until ALL of the requested records are made public.
I would encourage HAP's legal counsel, Richard Brownstein, to expedite this matter by instructing his client on the necessity of compliance with the Oregon Public Records law.
I would encourage mayor Tom Potter to expedite this matter by instructing his subordinate, Jeff Bachrach, to produce the required public records immediately or face the possibility of being dismissed from his HAP board appointment which Portland's mayor can do under ORS 456.110.
I would encourage Portland city commissioners Sam Adams, Randy Leonard, Dan Saltzman and Erik Sten to expedite this matter by contacting all of HAP's appointed commissioners, Jeff Bachrach - Lee Moore - Catherine Such - Harriet Cormack - Richard Fernández - Chris Lassen - Nathan Teske - Gavin Thayer, and asking them to tell their leader, Jeff Bachrach, that they acknowledge the necessity under the Oregon Public Records Law to produce the requested data. In addition, the four members of HAP's board that ostensibly represent the city of Portland should be told that if they do not support the publication of the requested public data then each Portland city commissioner will ask mayor Tom Potter to dismiss them from their HAP board appointment which Portland's mayor can do under ORS 456.110.
I would encourage Gresham's mayor and city commissioners Shane Bemis, Mike Bennett, Shirley Craddick, Karylinn Echols, Carol Nielson-Hood, Dick Strathern and Paul Warr-King to expedite this matter by contacting all of HAP's appointed commissioners, Jeff Bachrach - Lee Moore - Catherine Such - Harriet Cormack - Richard Fernández - Chris Lassen - Nathan Teske - Gavin Thayer, and asking them to tell their leader, Jeff Bachrach, that they acknowledge the necessity under the Oregon Public Records Law to produce the requested data. In addition, the two members of HAP's board that ostensibly represent the city of Gresham should be told that if they do not support the publication of the requested public data then each member of the Gresham city council will ask mayor Tom Potter to dismiss them from their HAP board appointment which Portland's mayor can do under ORS 456.110.
I would encourage Multnomah county chair, Ted Wheeler as well as commissioners Jeff Cogen, Lisa Naito [If she decides to run for Multnomah County DA and doesn't act here, this will, as they say, go on her permanent record.], Lonnie Roberts and Maria Rojo de Steffey to expedite this matter by contacting all of HAP's appointed commissioners, Jeff Bachrach - Lee Moore - Catherine Such - Harriet Cormack - Richard Fernández - Chris Lassen - Nathan Teske - Gavin Thayer, and asking them to tell their leader, Jeff Bachrach, that they acknowledge the necessity under the Oregon Public Records Law to produce the requested data. In addition, the two members of HAP's board that ostensibly represent Multnomah county should be told that if they do not support the publication of the requested public data then the Multnomah county chair and each Multnomah county commissioner will ask mayor Tom Potter to dismiss them from their HAP board appointment which Portland's mayor can do under ORS 456.110.
I would encourage all those who currently are or plan to be candidates for: Portland mayor, Portland city council, Gresham city council, the Multnomah county commission and Multnomah county District Attorney to expedite this matter by contacting all of HAP's appointed commissioners, Jeff Bachrach - Lee Moore - Catherine Such - Harriet Cormack - Richard Fernández - Chris Lassen - Nathan Teske - Gavin Thayer, and asking them to tell their leader, Jeff Bachrach, that they acknowledge the necessity under the Oregon Public Records Law to produce the requested data. In addition, all of HAP's board members should be told that if they do not support the publication of the requested public data then each candidate will publicly ask mayor Tom Potter to dismiss them from their HAP board appointment which Portland's mayor can do under ORS 456.110. [Special note to lawyer and past candidate Nick Fish who publicly told Oregonian columnist Renee Mitchell when he was a HAP board member that he supported the publication of HAP's public housing statistical data and yet never voted for it when he was a HAP board member and has since never spoken of the issue during his campaigns for city council nor at any other time. Nick if you want to get out from underneath this cloud now would be a very good time to do it. Amanda Fritz, if you're thinking of giving the Portland city council another try you won't get by this time without taking a stand on the necessity of public entities to provide public housing statistical data under the Oregon Public Records law.]
The following is background information in support of my request.
On February 28, 2007 PDC commissioner Sal Kadri tasked PDC's housing director Andy Wilch to gather information by neighborhood on the location of all public housing clients that are subsidized and administered by any government agency within PDC's area of influence. This notable and responsible action taken by PDC commissioner Sal Kadri prompted me to follow suit as a citizen to ask for similar data in a quest to determine which of us would have greater success in gathering more authentic, accurate, complete and timely public housing statistical data. Each of us have exactly the same rights under the Oregon Public Records law to ask for and get public data. The Portland Development Commission, Multnomah county and the Oregon Department of Housing and Community Services have complied with my requests for public housing statistical data.
On June 5, 2007 I met with three HAP staffers to discuss HAP's client record keeping. The meeting was cordial and productive. The specificity of the request for HAP data as written in the August 13, 2007 email (see below) to Shelley Marchesi reflected the conversation of June 5, 2007. I believe everyone at that meeting had an expectation that public housing statistical data would be forthcoming.
On August 3, 2007, at the suggestion of Portland city commissioner Sam Adams, I contacted Jeff Bachrach and requested a meeting to discuss the publication of HAP's public housing statistical data. Showing disrespect if not contempt for both me and Sam Adams, HAP's chair, Jeff Bachrach ignored our effort at communication and never responded to me or Sam. This level of hubris aimed at Sam Adams, a sitting city commissioner with a demostrated history of trying to get public housing statiscal data, who voted against a HAP nominee, Nathan Teske, because Teske would not agree to provide him with public informaiton, and who is very likely to be Portland's mayor sooner or later with the attendeant power to dismiss any and all HAP commissioners, might be considered by the gods to be an act not of just arrogance but also of stupidity. Bachrach's obvious ignorance of or contempt for the Oregon Public Records law does not say much for his legal acuity. If Jeff Bachrach approaches his law practice with the same level of legal prowess he demonstrated at HAP involving a legal requirement even non-lawyers are familiar with, prospective clients should take serious notice before handing over a retainer fee. Finally, Jeff Bachrach's act of unilateral public data sequestration demonstrated a total disregard for HAP's staff efforts to comply with both the letter and the spirit of the Oregon Public Records law.
The Bureau of Housing and Commmunity Development has the following published public housing location policy:
1. Maximize housing choice, especially for low-income people who have traditionally been limited in the location of housing that they could afford;
2. Discourage the concentration of low- or no- income households in any one area of the city;
3. Encourage the creation of additional housing resources for low-income households integrated throughout the community.
The North Portland Business Association, the St. Johns Post #98 of the American Legion, members of the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area Advisory Committee, many neighborhood association leaders as well as an overwheming number of citizens living in Multnomah county have expressed support for a public policy of equitable distribution of public housing throughout Multnomah county and oppositon to the discredited and abhorrent policy of unlimited neighborhood concentration of public housing. It is impossible to analyze public housing distribution patterns or hold public entities accountable without authentic , accurate, complete and timely public housing statistical data of the kind asked for from the Portland Development Commission, Multnomah county, the Oregon Department of Housing and Community Services, the Portland Bureau of Housing and Community Development, the Portland Planning Bureau and the Housing Authority of Portland.
In the mid 1970s I was on the board of the Portland Metropolitan Steering Committee which was a hugh multimillion dollar federally funded Community Action Agency. I was part of a group which successfully voted to shut the agency down because of waste, fraud and abuse. Some staff employees, including its director, were charged with criminal behavior. Just because a public entity says it's doing good doesn't mean that it is. Refusing to provide public data is the first sign that something may be amiss.
Richard Ellmyer
Community activist leading the campaign to stop all potentially new public housing (means test + government subsidy + rental agreement) in the Portsmouth neighborhood, especially the following:
1. Hacienda CDC public housing project on N. Newell Street
2. The recently decommissioned Sharff Army Reserve Center
3. The former John Ball School site
4. The recently closed Clarendon School site
Standards for Equitable Distribution of Public Housing Resolution author and project champion
Writer/Publisher - HAP Watchers commentary - Published on the Internet (http://www.goodgrowthnw.org) and distributed to thousands of readers interested in public housing policy in Multnomah County. To Subscribe: HAP-Watchers-on@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, 30% and rising, within HAP's Multnomah county jurisdiction of 117 neighborhoods.
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From: ellmyer@macsolve.com
Subject: May Request Still Pending
Date: August 13, 2007 11:59:41 AM PDT
Hi Shelley:
It has been three months, several emails and a visit since I began my latest quest to retrieve public housing statistical data similar to that which was requested by PDC commissioner Sal Kadri. We seemed to have been making progress but as yet I have no public housing statistical data in hand. So while I do want to be cooperative and do have a great deal of patience the time has come to deliver the data. I expect to receive the following by Friday August 17, 2007:
HAP Public Housing Program
A tab delimited text file with the following fields: 1. Age 2. Gender 3. Income 4. Neighborhood 5. Last Modification Date, for ALL clients in this database.
HAP Section 8 Housing Voucher Program
A tab delimited text file with the following fields: 1. Age 2. Gender 3. Income 4. Neighborhood 5. Last Modification Date, for ALL clients in this database.
New Columbia in North Portland's Portsmouth Neighborhood Program
The total number of public housing (means test + government subsidy + rental agreement) HAP clients living in New Columbia as of August 1, 2007.
A document showing that you have asked the New Columbia management to provide you with a tab delimited text file with the following fields: 1. Age 2. Gender 3. Income 4. Neighborhood 5. Last Modification Date, for ALL HAP public housing clients living in New Columbia as of August 1, 2007 to be delivered to you by September 1, 2007 then sent to me on September 1, 2007.
HAP Affordable Housing Program
The total number of public housing (means test + government subsidy + rental agreement) HAP clients living in all of HAP's 32 properties in Multnomah county as of August 1, 2007.
Documents showing that you have asked the managing agents of all 32 properties within the HAP Affordable Housing Program to provide you with a tab delimited text file with the following fields: 1. Age 2. Gender 3. Income 4. Neighborhood 5. Last Modification Date, for ALL HAP public housing clients living within these 32 properties as of August 1, 2007 to be delivered to you by September 1, 2007 then sent to me on September 1, 2007.
The total number of HAP clients from all of these four programs should add up to approximately 33,000.
I understand that the HAP board has authority over your responses to my legitimate and long standing requests. If I do not receive the data I have requested by Friday August 17, 2007 I will understand that this failure is a direct result of board direction not staff reluctance and incompetence. I will proceed accordingly.
I would prefer communication over confrontation whenever possible. Thanks for your help.
Richard Ellmyer
Community activist leading the campaign to stop all potentially new public housing (means test + government subsidy + rental agreement) in the Portsmouth neighborhood, especially the following:
1. Hacienda CDC public housing project on N. Newell Street
2. The recently decommissioned Sharff Army Reserve Center
3. The former John Ball School site
4. The recently closed Clarendon School site
Standards for Equitable Distribution of Public Housing Resolution author and project champion
Writer/Publisher - HAP Watchers commentary - Published on the Internet (http://www.goodgrowthnw.org) and distributed to thousands of readers interested in public housing policy in Multnomah County.
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, 28% and rising, within HAP's Multnomah county jurisdiction of 117 neighborhoods.
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Begin forwarded message:
From: Richard Ellmyer <ellmyer@macsolve.com>
Date: May 15, 2007 10:51:19 AM PDT
To: Shelley Marchesi <shelleyM@hapdx.org>
Cc: HAP Board <board@hapdx.org>
Subject: HAP Statistical Data On Public Housing Clients
Hi Shelley:
As you surely know, on February 28, 2007 PDC commissioner Sal Kadri tasked the PDC staff to gather information by neighborhood on the location of all public housing clients that are subsidized and administered by any government agency within PDC's area of influence. That data is soon to be released. I am conducting a similar survey in parallel with commissioner Kadri's. In time I will report to my readers the similarities and differences of our respective results.
I have a few questions and a request for some statistical data from the HAP computer database files.
Questions:
1. How many distinct public housing properties are owned by HAP?
2. How many individual public housing clients are living in these HAP owned properties?
3. How many non-section 8 distinct public housing properties are owned by entities other than HAP that operate with HAP funding?
4. How many individual public housing clients are living in these non-section 8 distinct public housing properties that are owned by entities other than HAP that operate with HAP funding?
5. How many distinct section 8 public housing residences are involved in HAP's public housing programs?
6. How many individual section 8 public housing clients are supported by HAP funding?
7. What is the current total number of HAP clients?
Requests For Statistical Data:
I. Please send me a tab delimited text file which includes a record for every public housing client living in HAP owned properties. Each record should contain the following fields:
1. Address of the property.
2. Neighborhood of the property.
3. Income of client.
4. Gender of client.
5. Age of client.
6. The date this record was last updated.
II. Please send me a tab delimited text file which includes a record for every public housing client living in non-section 8 public housing properties that are owned by entities other than HAP that operate with HAP funding. Each record should contain the following fields:
1. Address of the property.
2. Neighborhood of the property.
3. Owner of the property.
4. Income of client.
5. Gender of client.
6. Age of client.
7. The date this record was last updated.
III. Please send me a tab delimited text file which includes a record for every public housing client living in section 8 public housing supported by HAP funding. Each record should contain the following fields:
1. Neighborhood of the property.
2. Income of client.
3. Gender of client.
4. Age of client.
5. The date this record was last updated.
Thank you.
Richard Ellmyer
Community leader coordinating a local effort to bring the Oregon National Guard to the Sharff Army Reserve Center
Community activist leading the campaign to Stop The Portland Hope Meadows Corporation From Adding To The Overload Of Public Housing Clients In The Portsmouth Neighborhood And North Portland
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.
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, 22% and rising, within HAP's Multnomah county jurisdiction of 117 neighborhoods.