"On December 11, 2009 you made an email request for Public Data from the Housing Authority of Portland.... There are no records in existence consistent with your request."

March 4, 2010 Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schrunk

 

"Please send me an email specifying in detail exactly what HAP client records exist in electronic form and which fields of those existent computer database records HAP would be willing to make public and which it would not for each of these programs:

HAP Public Housing Program 

HAP Section 8 Housing Voucher Program

New Columbia in North Portland's Portsmouth Neighborhood Program

HAP Affordable Housing Program [Note: HAP has previously stated that it has no computerized client records for its clients in this program. Please suggest how the Oregon Public Records Law could be used to obtain these records or offer the position that these records cannot be accessed by the Oregon Public Records Law.]

Please send me the category totals requested."

March 15, 2010 Richard Ellmyer, candidate for the North Portland House seat district 44


"We can provide the first three reports you requested...  We estimate it will take an hour each to produce these reports at a combined cost of $125... The fourth report you requested is not possible to create as the information does not reside on a single database... You asked what client information exists for the four programs and which of the existing computer records HAP could make public and which it could not. We should be back to you by April 16, 2010."

March 19, 2010 Housing Authority of Portland Public Affairs Director Shelley Marchesi

Statement of Purpose

As a candidate for the North Portland House seat I have proposed legislation that would set an annual income for a one person household of $30,000 as the maximum allowed to enter and remain a public housing client in Oregon. I seek statistical data revealing the number of one person households that currently exceed an annual income of $30,000 in order to have a conversation with voters on this subject.

Analysis

A. DA Schrunk acknowledges that the first request for public data was made on December 11, 2009. Nevertheless, acting under Schrunk's pronouncement that a public entity may withhold information indefinitely by merely refusing to send a letter of denial to the person requesting public documents the Housing Authority of Portland did not acknowledge the first three requests of December 11, 2009, February 16, 2010 and March 2, 2010. It responded only to the fourth attempt on March 15, 2010. 95 days of my campaign have been spent without resolution because HAP, with Schrunk's blessing, refused to issue a statement of denial within a few days of the first request on December 11, 2009.

B. DA Schrunk is more than irresponsibly careless in his obviously unresearched, uninvestigaed and unsubstaniated legal assertion that, "There are no records in existence consistent with your request." HAP has stated that ALL of the records I requested DO IN FACT EXIST but that a very small number, perhaps a few hundred of 33,000, do not reside on a computer database under HAP's immediate control - begging the question, Why not?

Mike Schrunk has been a part of Portland's political establishment since his father was sheriff (1950-56) then mayor (1957-73) of Portland followed by Mike becoming DA in 1981. Mike Schrunk has been part of the power structure for 60 years. His failure to exercise his omnipotent authority over Oregon's Public Records Law in Multnomah county in favor of the presumptive rights of citizens to have access to public documents as the law intends is testimony to a naturally evolved propensity to protect the status quo and those in his political class from exposure to public embarrassment and worse.

Unfortunately, Schrunk's egregious failure to prompt HAP to respond immediately and investigate the existence of public records has no appeal. This is a major failing of the Oregon Public Records Law that should be remedied in the Oregon Attorney General's recommendations during the 2011 legislative session.

C. HAP's response ignores the simple request for total number of clients in each of HAP's four programs. There is a good reason for this. HAP's record keeping is so bad that it doesn't have any idea exactly how many clients it serves nor in what neighborhoods it has concentrated them. It has no records at all for any client in its so-called affordable housing program. It is simply unacceptable and inexcusable for a public agency to annually spend $80,000,000 of the people's money and not be able to show evidence of the number of their clients in each of their four programs and the neighborhood location of those clients.

D. HAP's response acknowledges that the records and the fields of those records I requested on December 11, 2009 exist and can be made public. At the same time HAP says it will take a month to determine what electronic records exist and which fields of those records are public and which are not.

All of you would be familiar with perhaps the most common computer database - the address book. First, last, city, state, zip, phone 1, phone 2, email etc. are data entry fields found in every record. If you wanted to print out your address book records but limit the output to just say last name and email address of your book club members you could easily do that. HAP's database is much the same.

Let's say HAP's three client databases have 30 fields per record. Other than first name, last name and street address what other fields should NOT be public data? State? Zip code? Size of household? NONE that I can think of. So how could it possibly take a month to identify public fields from non-public fields? The answer is it doesn't. Just as HAP stalled for 95 days in answering a request for public data this is another indefensible ploy to waste my campaign time and delay the process.

E. HAP's response says it will take an hour for a computer operator to do a find on the size of household field to select records pertaining to one person households, export only two fields in a tab delimited text format then drag the export file onto an email and send it to me. With the possible exception of Mike Schrunk, who having been burned once by HAP should now know better, is there anyone who is reading this with even the most minimal computer skills that would seriously argue that this process should take more than a minute, at most?

F. HAP's response says it is charging $125 for a three minute job. Apparently HAP is trying to compete with the health insurance and bank credit card companies to see who can get away with charging the highest possible fees on captive clients.

In February 2006 candidates for public office - state senator Ginny Burdick, Ted Wheeler, Jeff Cogen, Jim Robison - and Portland City Commissioner Sam Adams asked for Public Housing Statistical Data in the form of a tab delimited text file with the following four fields: neighborhood, income, age and gender. In May 2006 they got 11 of 33 thousand inaccurate, incomplete and untimely records at no cost.

The Washington County Housing Authority was asked for similar statistical data resident on a computer database to that requested from the Housing Authority of Portland. Within 48 hrs it provided, without fuss, without cost and with a respectful and helpful attitude all of the requested records. HAP staff has been sent copies of this tab delimited text file. As it turns out there are no one person households in the Washington County Housing Authority with incomes above $30,000. HAP has at least one single person household with an income of $48,000 with a high probability of many more at and above that figure. 

G. Both the Multnomah Countty District Attorney and the Housing Authority of Portland have chosen to respond to my email requests with letters sent through the U.S. mail and, in the case of the DA, made a demand that I must use the U.S. mail to do business with them. This method of communication and doing public business unnecessarily extends the time from 2 to 3 seconds to 2 to 3 days in each direction. This is an arbitrary and discriminatory practice not uniformly established for all citizens that exercise their right to request public data under the Oregon Public Records Law.

Using the U.S. mail instead of email puts me at a disadvantage of days to my political opponent who can seek and receive public documents via email.

Using the U.S. mail instead of email puts me at a disadvantage of days to my journalist/blogger competitors who can seek and receive public documents via email. (I have published more than 300,000 words on HAP and public housing. Subscribers to my HAP Watchers reports and commentary are in the thousands. I have written more about HAP in the last nine years than all the journalists in Oregon combined.)

Next Steps

1. I will exercise my right under the Oregon Public Records Law to inspect HAP client records on site.

2. Unless and until I receive a notice from the Multnomah County District Attorney establishing a blanket prohibition for ALL citizens from using email when conducting Oregon Public Records Law business I shall continue to use email and expect a timely response.

3. I will appeal the HAP $125 charge as exorbitant, prejudicial and indefensible to the Multnomah County District Attorney and report his response to you my dear readers and the Oregon Attorney General's office.

4. I ask the mayor of Portland, Sam Adams, who, under Oregon Law, controls the Housing Authority of Portland through his singular statutory authority to dismiss HAP appointees, to immediately ask HAP to provide him with this requested data and to make that data available to me and the public upon receipt.

5. It is in the interest of the taxpayers, voters and citizens of Multnomah county to know if the Housing Authority of Portland is using their tax dollars to subsidize housing for individuals earning 40, 50, 60 thousand dollars a year and more when there are large numbers of people earning less then 30 K who remain on HAP's waiting list.

I ask each individual member of the Portland city council, the Gresham city council and the Multnomah county commission to request and publish the data I have asked for or offer to pay HAP's charges.

6. The Oregon Attorney General's office is conducting interviews and doing research to develop legislation to amend and improve the Oregon Public Records Law in the 2011 legislative session. I ask the Oregon Attorney General's office to immediately ask HAP to provide them with this requested data and to make that data available to me and the public upon receipt. HAP's response will be of great value to the AG's office in their quest for examples of how the the Oregon Public Records Law can be made to work uniformly throughout Oregon for the citizens as it was intended not against them .

7. I ask journalists, writers, bloggers throughout Oregon with an interest in preserving and enhansing the Oregon Public Records Law to immediately ask HAP to provide them with this requested data and then to report their communications to me and the Oregon Attorney General's office.

8. I ask every attorney, law school professor and student throughout Oregon with an interest in preserving and enhansing the Oregon Public Records Law to immediately ask HAP to provide them with this requested data and then to report their communications to me and the Oregon Attorney General's office.

9. I ask every citizen activist throughout Oregon with an interest in preserving and enhansing the Oregon Public Records Law to immediately ask HAP to provide them with this requested data and then to report their communications to me and the Oregon Attorney General's office.

10. I ask Oregon's District Attorneys, Oregon's legislators and candidates for the Oregon legislature to pay close attention to this story as it unfolds.

The Big Picture

The process of this particular Oregon Public Records Law request touches upon every aspect of the legislation that needs attention and revision.

1. It involves a public entity, the Housing Authority of Portland, that has demonstrated over a period of nine years that it will do everything in its power to prevent anyone from gaining access to its public housing statistical data. HAP is the type of public institution that the Oregon Public Records Law was written for and about.

2. It involves a District Attorney who is biased, discriminates against citizens that challenge his decisions and is easily swayed to make legally binding decisions relating to technological processes for which he is demonstrably ignorant. The need for an overarching statewide appeals process to guarantee uniform execution of the Oregon Public Records Law cries out.

3. It involves a candidate seeking public office in the Oregon legislature, the body that created both the Housing Authority of Portland and the Oregon Public Records Law, who proposes legislation to include more low-income citizens in need of Public Housing by setting annual income limits but is thwarted in his ability to gather statistical data to make his case to the voters of his district.

I encourage the Oregon Attorney General, who is preparing legislation to revise the Oregon Public Records Law in the 2011 legislative session, elected officials, candidates for public office, attorneys, law school professors and their students, journalists, citizens activists, taxpayers and voters to not only follow this process but get involved, personally test the system and become part of the Oregon Public Records Law story.