Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 2006)
ed someone who had that kind of basis of good, sol id relationship. When it reached the point, to be honest, of them choosing to support my opponent, which is their prerogative, then you know what? Time out on efforts for reconciliation. JO: Will you please give us a job description for county chair? DL: In the simplest terms, Multnomah County is responsible for taking care of people in need and people in trouble. We are the mental health and public health authority, we’re responsible for sen iors and people with disabilities and addiction serv ices. We’re a sub-unit of the state to implement state social service programs. The county’s budget is a billion dollars, roughly. We manage people who have less than a year’s term in jail, locally. In the -case of the public safety system, alter the police bureau arrests people, the county picks up where they leave off. We book people, we incarcerate, we prosecute through the district attorney’s office, we supervise parolees and probationers, and we man age the treatment services. We also manage an extraordinary, world-class library system. There are also general government responsibil ities, taxation and assessment, elections, animal services, some transportation and land use plan ning authority, unincorporated parts of the coun ty, the bridges, all the parts of the county outside the city. We’re responsible for land use and regula tory oversight. DL: I’m in for an inch and for a mile on this issue. 1 feel very, very strongly for making every step we can towards equal treatment of everybody. So besides the marriage issue...we provide health care services to people with AIDS, HIV-positive people. We work with [the Sexual Minority Youth Resource Center] to support their efforts to be empowered to have something to say about their own lives. JO: What is the county’s association with SMYRC? DL: We have funded support to SMYRC. JO: Do you support continued funding for SMYRC? DL: 1 do, although I’m also hoping that we can support their efforts to be more self-supporting. I worry that the county’s budget challenges could put so much at risk, and they are going to be more free and effective and powerful when they have a solid source of funding. JO: Do you believe that the Multnomah County income tax was used properly? Would you support renewing it? DL: It was used absolutely exactly the way that the measure told the taxpayers it would be: $90- plus million went directly to the school districts. The mayor and I developed the School Efficiency and Accountability Committee...to make sure that all those dollars went to exactly where we said they would go. Remember, it restored the entire school JO: Besides being instrumental in the same- sex marriage decision, what are some of your year for a lot of these districts, and it maintained I class sizes. demonstrated commitments to queer causes? 1 don’t support the renewal of the county income tax. We prom ised the voters and the taxpayers that it would be a three-year, tem porary tax...I’ve already made a pledge that in my budget will be $5 million, one-time-only money. It’s the most we can do and the least we can do to support schools. That may be part of a comprehen Diane Linn has sive solution. It’s not the solution, because it’s not enough money. But the county can’t really do much more than that. Otherwise we’d be trading away huge parts of some of our oth er systems. JO: We imagine that there are a lot of things about the county and the way it works that you know that we don’t know. Whqt should we know? DL: The county is a critical part of the fabric of the community. The county’s responsibility in terms of its role in basic services and services for the vulnerable—it’s a constitutional responsibility in a civilized society that we make sure that nobody flounders on the streets, that everyone has a place to go, that the options are open for people to change their lifestyle, to get involved in recovery or deal with their mental health condition. The county plays a vital role in implementing the most quintessential or basic democratic values. So for progressive people in this community, what the county does is fundamental. And how we do it is really important because we are trying to balance the use of the tax dollar and target it in the most a lifelong commitment to issues of social justice. effective way. 1 have a three-pronged sense of this. We have to do prevention. We have to prevent kids from ending up on the streets, ending up in detention or ending up in the hospital. So how we intervene with kids in early childhood and school-based pro grams is really important. When things go wrong—when someone, for example, presents with the onset of schizophrenia or chemical dependency, or their identity is un defined and they are starting to flounder in school and things aren’t going right—it’s the county’s responsibility to lead the charge to intervene. That could be through a community partner, that could be through our management of the resources that help that intervention be effective. Finally, when everything goes wrong and sanc tion is necessary, to protect the rest of the commu nity, we have to manage that, too. © A full transcript of this interview—including Linn’s comments on the Wapato jail, press coverage of women in conflict and why she thinks she should be re-elected—is available at www.justout.com. Serious Injury & Death Cases Wrongful Death • Medical Malpractice • Serious Accidents • Brain Injuries Trucking Accidents • Spinal (ord Injuries • Nursing Home Abuse »Therapist Malpractice Over 16 Years Experience • Top “AV” Rating Proudly serving our community since 1989 Free Consultation 503-295-1940 • 800-795-8945 www.goreslaw.com Halo J. Gores, Attorney Holding Insurance Companies Accountable — Scott Tucker irif* 1 1 (503) 286-9739 www.JohnLScott.com/PScottTucker Email : PScottTucker@JohnLScott.com Main Office Phone: (503) 230-8600 rùiiiblìp. jraj HHE
