Let's Monkey With the Charter, Part 2

Meet the people who will deliver...something

Let us now turn to the question of the folks who have been selected (how? don’t ask) to grapple with the city’s antediluvian charter. Out of the 300 applications from citizens, 18 were selected by “City Council officials.”

The Charter Commission web site doesn’t bother telling us what the criteria for selection were, exactly, but this might give you a clue:

City Council officials looked for candidates with diverse perspectives who have experience championing community needs.

If you had called Casting Central and asked them to send over 18 camera-ready progressives, this is who would have shown up.

Spend time on the Charterites’ little web-biographies and you will not find anyone who departs, in any meaningful way, from progressive orthodoxy. The word “equity” (without defining that fungible term) pops up on virtually all of the bios; ditto “diversity,” and “inclusion” and all of the other progressive code-words. Here’s a sampling:

"I want to bring my diverse lived experience and passion for equitable outcomes onto the committee as lenses for how to consider and structure city leadership.” (Speer)

"My interest stems from my passion for public service and a commitment to equity and inclusion." (Castaneda)

“I am excited to participate in a process that…will help Portland become a more equitable community.” (Ketah)

“It is important to have a form of government that promotes equitable representation for all members of our community.” (Kitchin)

And on and on it goes. If anyone isn’t passionate or excited, they’re keeping it to themselves. (And as anyone over, say, 50 knows, “passion” is something you usually regret.)

Of course, the good progressive views everything through one “lens” or another, chief among them race. Although it is going out of fashion following the most recent City Council election (with 3 out of 5 POCs), progressive blood pressure still gets elevated by anything that smacks of “disproportion,” such as traffic stops, unruly school kids, murders, etc.

Looking for “disproportion?” The Charter Commission has got it…bigly. Keep in mind: the latest census says that 5.8% of the city’s population is black,9.7 Hispanic, 8.2% Asian. That leaves 77.4% white.

Thirty-three-percent of the Commission’s members are black or “blacktina.” (The Commission, for obvious reasons, doesn’t disclose races—or ages, for that matter, but there are photos and other giveaways.)

Hispanics? At least 11%.

Over on the Asian front, we have “Robin Ye is a proud Chinese American,” although he makes up just 5% of the commission’s body count.

Whites? Do the math.

One white person is an immigrant from Ukraine, Vadim Mozyrsky, whose pedigree is as long as your arm and includes civic excrescences such as the Portland Committee on Community Engaged Policing, one of umpteen police oversight boards that drive the cops crazy. But let’s give him credit.

Finally: Males make up 33% of the membership, while 49% of Portlanders are male according to the last census.

But, not to fear: the city’s miniscule trans population is fully represented. Gloria Cruz, (“They/them”) is on the Commission, leading to an odd little biographical sketch: “That is why in their role as a senior advisor to Human Resources they understand the value and impact of listening to learn.”

Everybody happy?

We shouldn’t leave out the Charterites deeply connected to the real world of retail-politics in the city.

We’ve got Amira Streeter, a “member of Governor Brown’s staff,” with “extensive experience in government policy, collaborative problem solving, and community empowerment.” (And, please, let us know the last time GuvKate engaged in “collaborative problem solving” during the Covid debacle.)

Then we’ve got one of the heaviest-hitters: Debbie Kitchin, “a Principal of InterWorks, L.L.C., a general contractor specializing in commercial tenant improvement and renovation and residential remodeling…” and, more impressively: “…member of the Board of Directors of Greater Portland Inc. She served as Chair and Member of the Board of Directors of the Energy Trust of Oregon (member for 16 years). She is Chair Emeritus of the Portland Business Alliance.”

Short version: she’s the representative of politically-gargantuan building/developers’ lobby, there to keep the wild-eyed types from taking this “empowerment” stuff too seriously, unless it comes with looser building codes (but then former House Speaker Kotek has that base covered).

She’s joined by Brenda Ketah, “Executive Director of the Home Builders Foundation-HomeAid Portland… [its] mission is to help people experiencing or at risk of homelessness build new lives through construction, community engagement and education.” Note the word “construction.”

And not to be forgotten, at Numero Uno: Yasmin Ibarra, “Political and Governmental Affairs Organizer for SEIU Local 49.” No politician with smarts will do anything to rile Ms. Ibarra and the union’s 15,000 members, all contributing to the union’s PAC. Hard to imagine that anyone on the Commission has even a tenth of her clout.

Then there are the deeply-embedded bureaucrats. Pick some at random:

• Dave Galat, “Dave was in an accident that resulted in a spinal cord injury. Since then his career has been focused on navigating accessibility and inclusion for people with disabilities as related to public entities. In 2014 Dave moved back to Portland to… work with the City of Portland as an ADA (Americans With Disabilities) Coordinator.” Say the word “ADA” and it will echo back as “lawsuits.”

• Hanna Osman, “an Assistant Planner with the City of Portland's Bureau of Planning and Sustainability... Her work on the West Portland Town Center Plan includes stewarding an inclusive community engagement process and applying a health equity lens to a major community planning project.” Hanna is a first-generation Somali; one might hope that she might cut some slack for the city that gave her family refuge from one of the world’s hellholes.

• Raahi Reddy, “Director of Metro's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Program.”

• Robin Ye, “Chief of Staff to Rep-elect. Khanh Pham.”

So they had 300 entries and came up with a panel that talks a great game, with the mantras of “equity” and all that utopian-sounding stuff, loaded with people who are doing well, as the old saying goes, by doing good.

And what’s “good?” If your answer is different, get outta their way!

So let’s ask some final questions:

Where, you might ask are the old people? No one on this commission appears to be over working age; certainly no one retired. Some of the members are shockingly inexperienced, blabbing away, as the young often do, about things that are far from their actual “lived experience.”

Where’s a mother staying home with her children?

Where’s someone who comes from the religious world? A minister, a rabbi, a priest?

Where’s a cop? As opposed to their overseers?

Where’s an actual conservative? (They exist; Trump got 84,000 votes last time around in Multnomah county. They aren’t all “insurrectionists,” surely.)

Where’s someone who started and ran a small business and survived the government-created Covid mini-depression?

Where’s someone who actually works with their hands, repairs things, can wire a house or lay a foundation?

Where’s the ultimate font of knowledge: a neighborhood barber or bartender?

Where’s an artist or composer or author?

In short, where the hell are the rest of us?

The rest of us who, god forbid, might have to live under the system this group is busily cooking up?