MARCH 4, 2011:NWLP
3/1/11
10:09 AM
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Building trades miffed at Metro for bypassing Shiprack
Building trades unions are miffed at
the Metro Council for not appointing
Bob Shiprack, recently retired execu-
tive secretary of the Oregon State
Building Trades Council, to fill a va-
cant seat in District 6.
Councilors of the regional govern-
ment voted 5-1 on Feb. 17 to have for-
mer Oregon governor Barbara Roberts
complete the unexpired term of Robert
Liberty. Liberty is a former director of
the environmental group 1000 Friends
of Oregon who resigned in mid-Janu-
ary to take another job.
Union officials aren’t sore at
Roberts, a labor-endorsed Democrat
who was elected the state’s first woman
governor in 1991. They’re more per-
turbed by how the process played out
that led to her appointment.
“It’s a bit disconcerting,” Shiprack
told the Labor Press a week after the
vote. “After going through this process,
I definitely have a clearer understand-
ing of why it’s so hard to get things
done in this region.”
Here is what happened:
Following Liberty’s resignation,
Metro solicited applications for the va-
cancy through Feb. 9. Shiprack, a for-
mer six-term state legislator, was one
of the first to announce his candidacy.
Another was Bob Stacey, Liberty’s suc-
cessor at 1000 Friends of Oregon (and
his next door neighbor). In November,
Stacey lost a close election for Metro
president to labor-endorsed winner
Tom Hughes. Six others applied to fill “This councilor asked Gov. Roberts to
the vacancy, including Roberts — who apply so that the council logjam could
did so eight minutes before the filing be broken. During the day more coun-
cilors called her, urging her to fill out
deadline.
Prior to Roberts’ filing, Shiprack the application form and submit it by
and Stacey were considered the front- day’s end.”
Roberts filed at
runners.
4:52 p.m. on Feb. 9.
According to
Stacey withdrew
news
reports “When you have
his application, but
posted by a Metro
not before declaring
writer on Metro’s both labor support
candidacy in 2012.
website, Roberts
and business support his
Roberts said she did
was recruited for
not intend to run for
the position based and that’s not good
election.
on concerns that
Shiprack, mean-
there might not be enough, I now
while, was out garner-
a majority (four
ing support from busi-
votes) for any can- understand why
ness groups and labor
didate. Roberts we’ve lost 26,000
organizations. Cam-
said “people con-
paigning on “job cre-
nected with Metro” jobs in Multnomah
ation,” he met with
gauged her interest
each councilor indi-
in the position; she County.”
vidually and hand-
wouldn’t say who
billed the entire district, which includes
recruited her to apply.
Metro also reported that within min- portions of Southwest, Southeast and
utes of applying ... Roberts called Northeast Portland. He said he received
Stacey, who worked for her adminis- “strong signals” of support from some
tration. They didn’t connect right away, of the councilors, although no outright
but when they talked, she laid out the endorsements.
At a public hearing/job interview on
dynamics of her application.
“The first phone call came at 8:30 in Feb. 16, more than a dozen people tes-
the morning, from a councilor who told tified on his behalf. Representatives of
her that none of the applicants for the neighborhood associations and school
vacancy — including me — could get districts also testified before Metro
majority support from the council,” councilors that their Number One con-
Stacey said in a post on his website. cern was job creation.
“Bob offered knowledge, a concrete
plan on how to create jobs, and ways to
make it better for workers,” John
Mohlis, executive secretary of the Ore-
gon State Building and Construction
Trades Council, told the Labor Press.
“With their vote, Metro councilors ba-
sically told all of the out-of-work resi-
dents in District 6 ‘screw you.’ ”
“What can you say?” Shiprack said.
“When you have both labor support
and business support and that’s not
good enough, I now understand why
we’ve lost 26,000 jobs in Multnomah
County.”
Shiprack expressed gratitude for the
broad support he received in such a
short period of time. “I really want to
thank all the people who got behind me
on this. The support was overwhelm-
ing.”
Shiprack said he won’t run for the
seat in 2012, but he believes labor and
business “should pay a lot of attention
to this agency. They have a lot of say in
the way things operate.”
Metro is a regional government that
serves more than 1.5 million residents
in Clackamas, Multnomah and Wash-
ington counties, and 25 cities in the
Portland metropolitan area. Its respon-
sibilities include urban growth bound-
ary management, transportation plan-
ning, waste disposal planning and
management, recycling, preservation of
natural areas, long-range planning,
habitat restoration, operating the zoo,
and venues for conventions, exhibits,
and performing arts.
Roberts was sworn in March 1. She
will serve the remainder of Liberty’s
term, which ends in January 2013.
Three seats will be open in 2013, as
term limits prohibit councilors Carl
Hosticka and Rex Burkholder from
running again.
The election will be held in May
2012, and if no candidate in their re-
spective district receives more than 50
percent of the vote, the two highest vote
getters in each district will advance to a
run-off election that November.
(Editor’s Note: Metro President
Tom Hughes was the lone vote for
Shiprack. Following the initial vote,
Councilor Carl Hosticka moved for a
unanimous vote and Hughes supported
Roberts in the second round.
Roberts chaired Metro’s charter re-
view committee in the early 1990s. In
1992, in her second year as governor,
voters approved the charter, which es-
tablished Metro’s role in regional land
use planning. Roberts served as gover-
nor from 1991 to 1995 and as secretary
of state from 1985 to 1991. She also
served in the Oregon House of Repre-
sentatives, as a Multnomah County
commissioner and on the Parkrose
School Board. Since leaving public of-
fice, she has served in leadership posi-
tions at Harvard University’s Kennedy
School of Government and in the Ex-
ecutive Leadership Institute at Portland
State University’s Hatfield School of
Government.)
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