On October 25, 2006 only three votes were cast to dispose of 1.4 million dollars worth of surplus real property, formerly the John Ball School site, by Tom Potter, Dan Saltzman and Erik Sten. Commissioners Sam Adams and Randy Leonard voted against the give away of surplus city property citing a demonstrable lack of due process.
On April 17th and again on April 30, 2007 Richard Ellmyer publicly informed mayor Potter, the Portland city council et. al. that the Portland city charter has this to say on the matter of disposing of surplus city property:
Portland City Charter, Section 1-104 Alienability of Public Places and Property and Limitations Thereon.
The City may sell, dispose of or exchange any buildings, structures or property, real or personal, which it owns or may acquire not needed for public use, by negotiation, bid, auction or any other method the Council finds appropriate. Favorable vote of at least four-fifths of all members of the Council shall be necessary for any ordinance authorizing such sale, disposal or exchange.
http://www.portlandonline.com/auditor/index.cfm?a=13416&c=28223
Unless mayor Potter can count to four he needs to announce TODAY that the surplus city property known as the John Ball School site cannot to transferred to the Portland Hope Meadows Corporation but will remain under the ownership of the city of Portland.
Unless mayor Potter can count to four he needs to announce TODAY that the public is requested, as they were in his city wide visioning project, to contact his staff with "visions" of what should be done with this surplus city property - being especially solicitous and mindful of quality of life concerns expressed by North Portland home and business owners.
Unless mayor Potter can count to four he needs to announce TODAY that the John Ball School site shall no longer be available for any public housing that would add to the already overloaded Portsmouth neighborhood which has the highest total number and the second highest percentage of public housing clients of all the 117 neighborhoods in Multnomah county. This announcement declaring a cessation of additional public housing in the Portsmouth neighborhood will be taken as evidence that the city of Portland will begin embarking on a new morally and politically justifiable public policy of equitable distribution which has overwhelming public support and will discontinue its current discredited and abhorrent operational policy of unlimited concentration of public housing into a few select neighborhoods which has no public support whatsoever.
An election on May 15th asks the voters to directly address the issue of the process for disposal of surplus city property. Time is of the essence.
Unless mayor Potter can count to FOUR he needs to announce TODAY that the surplus city property known as the John Ball School site CANNOT be transferred to the Portland Hope Meadows Corporation but will remain under the ownership of the city of Portland as expressly defined by the four-fifths rule in Portland's current city charter.
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.