Street Roots asked both candidates for Portland City Council to respond to five questions in 1,200 words or less. The first question was unique to each candidate. The remaining questions were asked of both candidates.
Jo Ann Hardesty
• President of the Portland Chapter of the NAACP,
2015-18
• Executive director of Oregon Action, 2002-10
• State representative, Oregon Legislature, 1997-2000
1. What changes to the labor agreement between the city and Portland Police Association will you push for during negotiations of the next contract beginning in 2020?
First and foremost, I want the police contract negotiations to be more community oriented. Because of the broken relationship between the Police Bureau and many members of our community, improving this process gives the city an opportunity to heal.
I would start bargaining by bringing a set of values brought forth from our community -- values like community policing, an officer code of conduct, and training standards that improve equity and address bias. I would also do early surveys of police officers to get their input on how we can improve public safety overall and community engagement.
Secondly, the city needs to retain the ability to let an officer go if circumstances warrant that decision, and I will make sure that our officers are held to the highest possible standard to ensure community safety.
Lastly, I will review any language regarding personnel files and the length of time that disciplines remain in an officer’s file. It’s possible the current contract allows disciplines to be removed after a certain length of time. If so, we need to review that language. We need to make sure that we have a strong process in place that does not allow for longtime, problem officers to remain on the job whose disciplines are no longer able to be used in a progressive process.
These changes could create a set of standards and values to allow officers who want to be part of our diverse community to stay and thrive, and could repair the reputation of the Portland Police Bureau. I know that the Portland Police Bureau shares the value of protecting and serving our community. That’s why I feel like we will be able to get to agreement on these and other issues.
2. Describe one specific action you will take to improve the lives of people of color living in Portland.
First we have to address issues in this city that are impacting people of color disproportionately. Issues like affordable housing, access to transportation, access to parks and community services. By focusing on communities of color we can lift all boats that are struggling economically in our city.
Another priority would be joining Commissioners Eudaly and Fritz to pull out of the Joint Terrorism Task Force. In today’s world we cannot trust that our federal government has community interest or safety for people of color in their plans for the JTTF. I would however, be interested in investing resources and joining with the FBI and other watch groups to monitor the activities of white-supremacist groups in our community. We have to keep Portland free of hate.
This is also why I strongly and adamantly oppose Measure 105. It will do nothing but drain our law enforcement resources and put our communities at risk.
My first legislative piece will be to work with my colleagues on the City Council to pull Portland out of the Joint Terrorism Task Force. Recently, both Commissioners Eudaly and Fritz have expressed support for this action to ensure that PPB will not be embedded in Homeland Security activities. After 9/11, Tom Potter, former Portland Police chief and mayor at the time, made the decision to NOT join the Joint Terrorism Task Force due to his inability to oversee the officers assigned to the task force. Mayor Charlie Hales, however, slipped in this vote to join the JTTF just before he left office, despite two hours of public testimony that was all in opposition to this federal partnership. Today, we cannot ensure the safety of community members as long as Portland Police are cooperating with ICE and other federal entities through the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
3. How should City Council and Portland Police Bureau respond to the high arrest rate – 52 percent in 2017, according to The Oregonian – of people experiencing homelessness?
I am committed to supporting housing and shelter alternatives for our houseless community rather than criminalizing people for being houseless. Eighty-six percent of arrests in 2017 were nonviolent, and more than 1,200 arrests were solely for procedural offenses such as missing court or violating probations. It’s time we had a council that is ready to re-focus our priorities and I am ready to do that.
People are houseless because it costs too much to live in the city of Portland. We need to conduct a top to bottom audit of our current use of public safety dollars to see where we can improve using resources to direct support services including garbage cleanup, laundry, showers and hot meals. We should be working with the houseless community to transition individuals back to living indoors at a pace that works for them.
4. From Kenton Women’s Village to Dignity Village, Hazelnut Grove to Right 2 Dream Too, the city has come to support some self-governed camps, rest areas and alternative shelters. Do you support the expansion of this model?
Absolutely. These self-governed camps don’t get calls from neighboring homes or businesses for police services. They provide a sense of dignity for the people who need to sleep, live or rest there. However, I believe that these camps should not be spearheaded solely by private investors who have never experienced homelessness or worked with the houseless community. The houseless community needs to be at the forefront of the decision-making table in order to have successful, self-governed camps, rest areas and alternative shelters, which is why I have been strongly against using Wapato jail as a shelter.
5. Does Commissioner Chloe Eudaly’s proposal to limit landlords’ ability to conduct criminal and financial background checks on potential tenants go too far? Why or why not?
Everyone needs a safe warm place to lay their head at night. I support ensuring that the environment is safe for all residents because people are safe when they know their neighbors and have a sense of community to support them. I also believe that criminal and financial background checks can often cause barriers and stigma for many individuals, especially low income and/or houseless residents in the city. Ultimately, I have not had the opportunity to discuss this proposal with Commissioner Eudaly or with multi-family residential building owners and tenants before committing to a specific strategy. I do support Commissioner Eudaly’s efforts to cap the amount that landlords can charge for security deposits. People should not have to struggle to pay move-in fees for a home that would otherwise fit their budget.
Loretta Smith
• Two-term Multnomah County Commissioner 2010-2018
• Assistant, later Portland field representative for U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, 1987-2010
1. Many people and organizations that work directly with homeless folks, including Street Roots, are opposed to turning Wapato jail into a mass homeless shelter, citing its lack of proximity to other services and trauma-inducing jailhouse feel, as well as concerns that this approach aims more to hide vulnerable people from public view than to improve their lives. Given those concerns, why do you advocate for using Wapato as a homeless shelter?
Because I don’t want to have another homeless person die this winter because they don’t have shelter. Wapato is not a perfect solution, but it is one solution. It is also not intended to be a long-term shelter but rather a temporary triage center with wrap-around services. With winter around the corner and at least 1,700 of our neighbors unsheltered, we need housing now. We’re in a housing crisis, Portlanders are dying on the streets. Let’s work together to make Wapato a place where we can save lives, connect people to services and care for our city’s most vulnerable.
2. Describe one specific action you will take to improve the lives of people of color living in Portland.
Every budget decision will be viewed through an equity lens. The first action I would take is to expand our program to help prepare people of color, other vulnerable populations, including seniors, people with disabilities, and the unsheltered ready for a major earthquake. As the commissioner in charge of the Bureau of Emergency Management and the Fire Bureau, I would expand the outreach program to get our most vulnerable residents prepared, to have an emergency kit and a plan. This is critical to help our city to be more resilient when, not if, the major earthquake will happen.
3. How should City Council and Portland Police Bureau respond to the high arrest rate – 52 percent in 2017, according to The Oregonian – of people experiencing homelessness?
We should not be criminalizing those experiencing homelessness. We need to find a place for them to go to get wraparound services they need. So many of our neighbors living on our streets have drug and alcohol and/or mental health issues; that’s why opening Wapato as a triage center is another tool for us to address this issue and decrease the homeless in our city. Portland has expert service providers who can provide residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation, mental health services and job training programs for these individuals.
4. From Kenton Women’s Village to Dignity Village, Hazelnut Grove to Right 2 Dream Too, the city has come to support some self-governed camps, rest areas and alternative shelters. Do you support the expansion of this model?
I support this kind of self-governed camp. I believe that we can create more of these, and we must work with social service providers, the Joint Office of Homeless Services and the neighborhoods to make sure these camps work within the city.
5. Does Commissioner Chloe Eudaly’s proposal to limit landlords’ ability to conduct criminal and financial background checks on potential tenants go too far? Why or why not?
I believe that we should look at ways to help house those who face barriers to getting a place to live. But that proposal went too far. What we need is to find a way to help those struggling with poor credit histories by connecting them to programs so they can find housing. I do have real concerns about disqualifying individuals with any criminal backgrounds, but I do think that a landlord has a right to know who will be renting their property. This is not an either/or issue. We need to bring landlords and renters together to hammer out these solutions.
Street Roots is an award-winning, nonprofit, weekly newspaper focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. Our newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Learn more about Street Roots
