Money, Talk and Politics

District 4 candidates enjoy themselves; District 1 talks race and police

Had you walked into John’s Marketplace in Portland’s Multnomah Village last Thursday for a favorite brew, you might have wondered what the party was all about.

The place was packed with politics.

More than 90 people standing in the aisles, sitting on boxes, occupying every available chair, table and bar stool for a candidates’ forum sponsored by OPB’s “Think Out Loud.” This forum was for District 4, which covers West Portland, including downtown, the Pearl District, Hillsdale as well as portions of the inner southeast (Sellwood, Eastmoreland and Reed).

A half hour before the show began, a lively crowd was laughing and talking, people mingling, sipping beer and wine. Seen in the crowd: A woman wearing a hat with “, la” while another person sported a Harris/Walz shirt. The crowd was almost entirely white, middle-aged or older.

While 30 candidates are running for District 4, only 13 were invited to OPB’s show. The criteria used to winnow them was based on which candidates had the largest number of individual donors. It’s similar to standards used by other media outlets in Portland.  The number of donors doesn’t always translate to the most money, but it’s a form of exclusivity.

Two nights earlier had you walked into Christ Memorial Community Church in North Portland you would have seen a very different candidates’ forum. In the fellowship room, about 20 people, mostly older and black, sat at tables, eating fried chicken and potato salad, and listened to candidates from District 1 in East Portland. The church (which is located in District 2) invited all 16 candidates from District 1. Only four showed up.

This city election is the first under the new format designed by the Portland Charter Commission to bring more diversity and fairer representation to the city council.

As it is, three black candidates from Portland’s District 4 — Chloe Mason, John Toran and Ciatta Thompson — were among the 17 candidates not included in OPB’s “Think Out Loud” forum because they didn’t meet the donor threshold.

The current city council has a mayor and four commissioners, elected city-wide by majority vote. The new city council will still have a city-wide elected mayor, but it will have 12 city councilors, three each from four geographic districts. Using Ranked Choice Voting, a winner may only need 25 percent of the vote to win. The pay is $133,000 a year. The result is 98 council candidates — and various forums trying to sort through them.

The “Think Out Loud” forum combined standard questions (“What is the biggest issue facing Portland?”) with “lightning round” banter: What would you like for your last meal? Which superpower would you rather have — flight or invisibility?

At Christ Memorial, there was less laughter and more conversation, starting with moderator Samuel Thompson’s first question to candidates Loretta Smith, Steph Routh, Terrence Hayes and Timur Ender: “What are you going to do to stay connected to your black constituents?”

Smith and Hayes are black; Routh and Ender are white.

Routh, an adjunct instructor at Portland State University, replied “The reason I am so excited to be here, these are the conversations … it starts here, showing up starts here.”

Smith, a former Multnomah County Commissioner and staffer for U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden,  said she plans on having town halls. She knows how to read meeting agendas and ask “Who is this going to impact?” Then reach out to them.

Hayes, who owns a graffiti-cleaning business called Restore Nuisance Abatement, said he is already tracking constituents through his website.

“I already answer to multiple groups. …Most of them know where I live…,” he said. “I just got to continue to do this and not disappear all of a sudden.”

Ender, an infrastructure project manager and the son of Turkish immigrants, said he supports race equity plans and would steer funding to them.

By the end of the evening, the candidates — under Thompson’s questioning — would explore race from several angles.

In Multnomah Village, there wasn’t much thinking out loud about race. But candidates at both forums were almost unanimous that the biggest issue facing Portland is public safety and homelessness.

“Even if we can’t solve it tomorrow we can start managing it…,” said candidate Eli Arnold who is currently a Portland police officer. “The new camping ban is a necessary tool.”

“The biggest issue is the addiction crisis …,” said Tony Morse, an attorney and recovery advocate. “It impacts everything from public safety to homelessness."

“Having a police presence is a deterrence to crime,” said Olivia Clark, who worked in intergovernmental relations for former Gov. John Kitzhaber (D).

Mitch Green promised that homelessness and crime would be dealt with. If the council isn’t successful, “We’re going to get phone calls every day.”

Most of the candidates were critical of the city’s contract with Multnomah County’s Joint Office of Homeless Services. Should Portland stay or leave?

Chris Henry, community advocate and former trucker: Stay and work out the differences.

Bob Weinstein, former mayor of Ketchikan, Alaska: Look at leaving and replacing it. “End dictatorship of the county chair.” (That earned him some audience applause.)

Lisa Freeman, who identifies herself as a government transition expert: “Stay in. The city cannot solve houselessness by itself.”

Many candidates pledged to increase housing for all income levels without explaining who would build it and pay for it.

Sarah Silkie, a civil engineer for the city’s water department, wants to reform the city’s permitting system and convert unused office buildings to get people sheltered as soon as possible.

“Motels give you a door that locks,” said Chad Lykins, owner of Rose City Chess, suggesting that as a quick option for the homeless, but he said services need to be provided on site — like the nearby Multnomah Safe Rest Village, “which we are proud to host.”

Ben Hufford, an architect, noted a schism in Portland’s personality. Every time Portlanders are asked to contribute something, they vote yes, he said. But when he campaigns door-to-door, he hears, “We keep paying a lot of money and not getting results.”

Miller asked about potential problems of multiple-member districts. With three city councilors in each district, how will constituents know which one to go to when they have an issue?

“We’re going to learn each other’s strengths,” said Eric Zimmerman, chief of staff for Multnomah County Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards.

He has seen multi-member systems work.

“What doesn’t work — councilors playing turf wars instead of being advocates,” he said.

Portland went from being the darling of the national media to chaos, Miller said. How do you change the narrative of a city?

“Bring back downtown … arts can be a catalyst,” said Stan Penkin, a builder. He’s hopeful about the James Beard Academy and another auditorium in the works.

What if Portland experiences a rerun of the 2020 protests? How would he handle it?

“That is a tough question…,” Penkin said. The situation got out of control, and the city wasn’t prepared to handle it.

When Moses Ross, president of the Multnomah Neighborhood Association, took a turn at the mic, he said the challenges from the downtown core are seeping into the outer neighborhoods like Multnomah Village. His neighborhood group has organized trash and graffiti removal.

He mentioned a characteristic of Portland’s west side that is often ignored: “There are more unpaved sidewalks and streets on the west side than east side.” (When Jo Ann Hardesty ran for City Council in 2018, she was surprised at the unpaved streets and sidewalks on the west side.)

At Christ Memorial Community Church, the lack of sidewalks and streetlights on the east side came up — particularly what happens when kids get off the bus to walk home.

Too many of our babies are treated like kids one week and gang bangers the next, said Hayes.

Thompson, the moderator, said for the past two months he’s heard a lot of fantastic ideas from the many candidates running for city council.

“We want to be intentional … what specifically are you going to do for the black community?”

He rattled off some areas of concern — economics, housing, public safety, gun violence, equitable funding, health (“including addiction”).

Smith said her government experience working for Multnomah County and U.S. Sen. Wyden taught her about accessing public funds. She is trying to find money for homeowners “who look like me” and how to identify federal funds for housing and rent assistance.

Routh told the audience that “state-level carve outs” don't have prevailing wages, and she is interested in removing carve outs so “anyone building affordable housing should be paid a prevailing wage.”

Question from the audience: What is a prevailing wage?

Routh stumbled over an answer, and Smith rescued her: a union wage.

Ender offered a mantra that has become popular with progressive candidates who are uncomfortable supporting the police: “right responder, right issue, right time.”

Ideally, that means sending a mental health professional to deal with someone whose behavior has led to an emergency call for help. Ender supports expanding Portland Street Response to handle nonviolent, mental health-related calls 24/7. He didn’t mention that even PSR staffers don’t feel safe handling calls involving some deranged, mentally ill persons or those who have ingested certain drugs.

Ender told the audience at Christ Memorial Community Church that once a bullet is fired, the city spends “an outrageous amount of dollars” in the first 10 minutes on policing. He prefers to spend funds on the Office of Violence Prevention “to prevent that bullet from being fired.”

Speaking from personal experience, Hayes said “We need enough officers to respond to shootings.”

Two decades ago, Hayes shot a rival when he was 19 and went to prison for attempted murder. In addition to his own violent history, he had a 17-year-old cousin who was shot and killed by police after he robbed a homeless man and tried to break into two occupied dwellings. Hayes’ family later received a $1.5 million settlement. (See “Wiping Away the Truth.”)

Yet Hayes has been endorsed by the Portland Police Association. He was chair of an oversight group working with a police team focused on gun violence. He can be a forceful public speaker. (He participated in the Toastmaster’s Club while in prison).

He said there’s a need for community-based organizations but also “we need a pathway to get black companies on this government. … We have to be intentional about who we hire. …When black folks do well, the whole community does well.”

Smith quietly noted: “We had a commissioner who looked like us who took our money from us. …  I will never try to take your money away.”

She was referring to former City Commissioner Hardesty who defeated her in 2018.

Smith went into some detail about how to identify state and federal funding, what’s available one-time only and what’s available ongoing. Governance — at local, state and federal levels — is all about accessing and moving money to pay for programs and projects.

When she recalled past efforts over the decades to improve economic conditions in the black community, Smith tossed out acronyms — CETA and JTPA, and the audience murmured knowingly. They remembered these programs. (The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act was signed into law in 1973 by President Nixon to train workers and offer them jobs in public service.  Nine years later it was replaced by the Job Training Partnership Act, which was repealed in 1998 by Workforce Investment Act of 1998 during President Clinton’s administration.)

“I learned how to do a resume at PIC,” said Thompson, who got his first job at age 14. (The Private Industry Council was a youth employment program in  Multnomah and Washington counties and the city of Portland.)

“I can analyze a budget…,” Smith said. “Commissioners don’t look at these budgets. They depend on the financial department. … I know where the money comes from. … Have someone who understands the budget. … They are going to have their way with you.”

Like Hayes, Smith has been endorsed by the Portland Police Association.

“That doesn’t mean I am in their pocket…,” she told the audience. “It means they trust me enough to have a conversation. … Some folks running … want to defund the police. … We can’t afford to defund the police.”

What’s needed, she added, are courageous conversations.

“There will be some police-involved shootings without a doubt,” Smith said. She and Hayes will be a bridge from the police into the community “so they can explain themselves. … I don’t think you should run away from it.”

Robin Wisner, who serves on the Portland Committee for Community-Engaged Policing, a police oversight group, asked about a court decision on police accountability.

“I’m already in that work,” Hayes said. “I lost a cousin to police violence. I understand what it means to have to bury your baby when an officer decides that they cannot take another breath to spare a black boy’s life. … If you pull that trigger on an unarmed black kid for nothing, we coming for you.”

But he acknowledged that police work is a rough job. That doesn’t mean a cop is being malicious. Hayes drew a distinction between an officer acting with malicious intent and an officer handling a rough part of the job.

“I am without question the most qualified person of all the candidates to talk about police accountability,” Hayes declared.

Thompson then turned to Routh for her take on the issue: “Steph?”

For a moment, she was silent, sitting right next to Hayes, looking at him, her mouth slightly open. Finally, she nodded her head towards him.

“I would say I would defer to you,” she said.

“Good answer,” replied Hayes.

The audience laughed.

For his part, Ender said he has an undergraduate degree in criminology and a degree from Lewis & Clark Law School.

“I am not beholden to any particular interest group,” he said.

According to his profile in the Multnomah County Voters’ Pamphlet, Ender’s  endorsements include 11 state and local elected officials.

What the two candidate forums in Multnomah Village and the Christ Memorial Community Church had in common was a lack of young faces. One of the few at John’s Marketplace was a guy working the register at the deli. He was 20 and lives in Portland. He didn’t know what ranked choice voting was. He wasn’t interested in voting.

When the forum in Multnomah Village broke up, audience members made their way out of John’s Marketplace into what really does look like a village, with small  shops and restaurants lit up for the evening.

At Christ Memorial Community Church, when I started to leave, an older, black man sitting by the door stood and said, “I’m security. I’ll walk you to your car.”

That’s not necessary, I told him.

“I’m parked on the other side of the street and down a block. It’s not far, really.”

He followed me out onto the front steps.

“I’ll stand here and watch.”

And he did.