Tee Up the Latest 'Citizens'

...and give 'em stuff to do.

One thing you learn quickly about our progressive machine—just as self-dealing, corrupt, and ruthless as any of the old-fashioned city machines in, say, Chicago—is that there will always be a gloss of “fellow citizens” to front the noxious stuff.

Thus the parade of panels, committees, and commissions drawn from the same old B-list players who are—if nothing else—reliable and wholly predictable in their service to the progressive faith.

Meet the freshly impanelled Government Transition Advisory Committee. Haven’t actually heard about these folks? No surprise—local media has a revulsion at reporting anything concerning the city’s new charter until it’s a done deal…and maybe not even then.

The newsies barely took notice of the other two charter clean-up committees in the field—one to gerrymander the city into four minority-friendly districts; another to set salaries for those about to be somehow elected by the city’s new voter-torture ranked choice plus single transferrable vote mechanisms. (The city will spend around $600K to tell you how this works.)

(But don’t worry: for reasons that no one on the Charter Commission bothered asking about, there will be just six slots for ranking candidates and selecting the three final winners. No one seems to know what will happen if, say, seven or maybe a dozen candidates want to run for a seat on the Council. Write if you have that one figured out.)

In an eerie echo of the good old days of the USSR’s Politburo, there are 15 members on this latest committee, plus four Alternate Members plus two Reserve Alternate Members. Why? Who knows, except that the lineup fills out the city’s entirely predictable dance-card…

All committee members live, work, worship, or are enrolled in school within the City of Portland, and represent a diversity of race, gender, age, color, religion, sexual orientation, marital status, familial status, mental or physical abilities, sources of income, and geography.

What’s not on the list?

Competence might lead the pack.

As for the Transition Committee’s workload, anyone who knows anything knows that the transition is actually under the thumb of the city’s chief administrative officer—sure to be the new city manager—Michael Jordan. He runs the show under City Council resolution 37609 which, oddly, says not a word about the three citizen commissions or that Jordan (or anyone else) will be required to jump through any of their hoops. It’s worth reading the actual language…

…the Council directs the Chief Administrative Officer to develop and implement the City's transition plan and community engagement plan as necessary to implement Measure 26- 228, including project schedule and budget management, resource allocation, and funding strategy.

Jeepers! That sounds like everything!

Plus…

Council retains all legal authority to approve any City Code changes or budgetary appropriations related to the transition to the new form of government…

Plus the resolution identifies Mr. Jordan as…

…a key stakeholder throughout this transition process…

See how this works?

So here we have a group that no one elected and that, thus far, seems to be kinda inactive—no meetings scheduled and no website—although, thinking back to the original Charter Commission, maybe inaction is the wisest choice.

Lacking anything better to do, I spent an afternoon on the one live web page that says anything at all about the committee and there they were, like grads in a high school yearbook, complete with self-penned blurbs telling us how really terrific they are.

I lost count of how many employed the usual magic words—equity, diversity, inclusion, collaboration, underserved communities, blah-blah…although there were a few standouts. So let’s meet a few of ‘em…

David Burnell, who’s qualified to monitor the governmental transition because he is a “Certified Alcohol and Drug Substance Abuse Counselor,” is…

…passionate about building up equity in our city, to create equality for all residents.

A twofer!

Bill Farver is one of the (by my estimate) ten government insiders on the panel, who have been at least close enough to the actual sausage-making to, one hopes, catch the odor. He was…

…Chief Operating Office /Chief of Staff capacity for two County Chairs, two Portland Superintendents, and one President of Mt. Hood Community College.

Given that the state’s community colleges and public schools are losing customers, not to mention the crash-and-burn of Portland, it might be time to rethink the resume.

The same might be said of the two folks—Juanita Santana and Amy Randel—whose resume is thick with government service in San Francisco and the tax-crazy California legislature (yikes!).

Manie Grewal is one of the six members from non-profitland (although almost everyone on the committee has served on a profusion of non-profit boards); she’s policy director for a 501 (c)(3) called REDF which hands out funds to other non-profits and businesses. And has a truly scary set of trademark warnings on its otherwise cheery website…

You may link to the home page of REDF as long as the link does not cast us in a misleading light…

Find it on your own.

Among the retirees on the committee is Lory Hefele, who wrapped up a 16-year career with Intel (which opted to drop $20-billion for new fabs in Ohio earlier this year and which set off a “gotta get some chips” panic in the state legislature—including allowing GuvTina to toss out any local land-use laws that displease her).

Joe Hertzberg is one of the many consultants and, curiously, was…

…a member of the 2006-07 charter commission that unsuccessfully recommended a change in the city’s form of government.

Revenge is sweet.

Juliet Hyams is also a governmental insider: former president of the Northwest District Association who…

…will advocate for applying change management principles to this historic culture shift in Portland’s governance.

But hey! Wasn’t the charter designed to tamp down the influence of west siders?

Zach Kearl, (he/him), was a policy advisor with Mayor Wheeler (surely a hopeless job with our shape-shifting mayor), where he…

…worked on wicked problems from water management to homelessness to climate and health…

…and now has a job with the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group, where he awaits the apocalypse. As for those homelessness policies? Don’t ask.

Maabi Munoz, a Realtor (and we all know that Realtors—capitals, please—are right up there with teachers and unions in measures of political clout) lets us know that she’s…

…an Afro Latina with 23 years of experience in real estate and mortgage lending…

…who is…

…committed to democracy in housing…

…whatever that is. Personally, I’d prefer 3-percent APR.

Fred Neal, another government insider, also…

…served on the Oregon ACLU board from 1987 to 2017…

Any second thoughts about that Boise decision?

Terrence Paschal, works for Standard Insurance Company and…

…oversees the activities of the real estate and corporate facilities staff…

…and also served as…

…board chair for Downtown Portland Clean & Safe…

…which runs the $25-million program that, somehow, someday, will do something about, well…downtown.

The list goes on; they’re all standard-issue joiners and equitizers, diversifiers, inclusionistas…you’ve met ‘em on the other committees in this space, so we won’t bore you with more resume-speak.

They’re all properly vetted progressives. And all, presumably, aware of the rather hopey-feeley list of their…well, powers is too grand a word. The city’s description of their duties uses words that are politically pastel, such as…

• Ensuring implementation of November 2022 voter-approved Charter amendments is done effectively and efficiently…

• Maintaining open and consistent communication and engagement with internal and external stakeholders…

• Advising the City on the November 2022 voter-approved Charter amendments transition plan…

Golly! Sounds like everyone’s blurbs.

Mr. Jordan might even have time to read them.

…