NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS |
April 5, 2019 | PAGE 3
UFCW calls out Multnomah County for purge of citizens committee
By Don McIntosh
Jeff Anderson, United Food and
Commercial Workers Local 555
secretary-treasurer, says he does-
n’t like bullies. That’s why, at his
urging, Local 555 staff turned
out last year to oppose the purge
of a little-known citizen volun-
teer committee at Multnomah
County.
The 15-member Community
Involvement Committee (CIC)
was created by a ballot measure
in 1984. The four-paragraph
county charter amendment
didn’t go into detail about the
committee except to say that it’s
supposed to facilitate direct
communication between citizens
and the board of commissioners
at Multnomah County, and that
it has the authority to hire and
fire its own staff.
But last year, a 4-1 majority of
the Multnomah County Com-
mission turned that upside down
— voting to give staff the au-
thority to fire the committee.
The vote came after a months-
long conflict between CIC staff-
person Dani Bernstein and CIC
members Greg Anderson and Yu
Te. Greg Anderson — a former
mayor of Florence, Oregon — is
Jeff Anderson’s older brother; Te
is a community activist and past
president of the Hollywood
Boosters Business Association.
At an April 12, 2018, meeting of
the Multnomah County Board of
Commissioners, Bernstein asked
commissioners to remove the
two due to unspecified “behav-
ior that does not align with Mult-
nomah County values and ex-
pectations,” and allegations that
others had complained about
them. But when then-commis-
sioner Loretta Smith raised the
objection that county code gave
the Board no authority to re-
move members, the proposal
was tabled.
CIC member Sherry Willm-
schen, a retired County em-
ployee, says it was horrendous
that the Board considered allega-
tions that impugned citizen vol-
unteers’ integrity without an in-
vestigation.
Multnomah County commis-
sioners returned to the issue June
28 with a resolution to temporar-
ily suspend the CIC, rescind the
appointment of all CIC mem-
bers, and set up a new CIC,
which would no longer have the
power to hire and fire its own
staff. County Chair Deborah
Kafoury said volunteer members
were too argumentative, and that
some felt “bullied.” Greg Ander-
son countered at the meeting that
it was he who’d been bullied —
by staff. The resolution passed 4-
1; Smith was the only “no” vote.
Jeff Anderson and Local 555
staff attended the commission
meetings and opposed the purge.
The union also put up online ads
and sponsored an online petition
to reinstate the CIC.
“There should be screaming
from the mountains, but there’s
not,” Jeff Anderson told the La-
bor Press. Anderson said he
heard about the controversy
from his brother, but got in-
volved because it was the right
thing to do. When no one else
stepped up, he got Local 555 in-
volved. Local 555 has a history
of involvement in community
affairs even when there’s no di-
rect tie-in to union issues, Ander-
son said. For example, UFCW
has supported bond measure
campaigns for housing, parks,
and children’s services, and op-
posed a ballot measure that
would have privatized the Port-
land Water Bureau.
“We’re part of the commu-
nity,” Anderson said.
Now, the dispute is likely to
be resolved in court. On behalf
of five of the ousted CIC mem-
bers, public interest attorney
Dan Meek filed a lawsuit
against the county Sept. 25, say-
ing the Board of Commissioners
lacked legal authority to sus-
pend the CIC and fire all its
members — and that doing so
violated their freedom of speech
and right to due process. Meek
took on the case pro bono (with-
out pay). The suit is pending,
but the County continued to
move ahead with its “re-set” of
the CIC.
On Nov. 29, the Board of
Commissioners held a hearing
on an ordinance putting the
county’s Office of Community
Involvement in charge of the
CIC, and setting up a process for
the Board or CIC director to re-
move CIC members. Again,
Commissioner Smith was the
only one to speak against it, call-
ing it “unconscionable.”
“The CIC was meant to be a
watchdog,” Smith said. “The
CIC was not meant to be a tea
party, and everybody get along.”
The ordinance passed 4-1 on
Dec. 13, Smith the lone “no.”
Meanwhile, the county hired
attorney Michael Tom—
OHSU’s Director of Affirmative
Action & Equal Opportunity —
to investigate allegations by
County staff that several CIC
members broke County person-
nel rules that mandate a profes-
sional and respectful workplace
free from discrimination and ha-
rassment. Willamette Week pub-
lished a heavily redacted version
of his 11-page report, dated Jan.
15. Among the alleged offenses:
Greg Anderson tried to hug a
staffperson and a CIC member,
called women “girl,” “sweetie”
and “honey,” and referred to
Bernstein as “she” instead of
“they” (Bernstein wants to be re-
ferred to as “they.”) Tom found
that some of what Anderson did
was unprofessional and disre-
spectful, but couldn’t determine
if it was “severe or pervasive.”
Greg Anderson agreed to be
interviewed about the allega-
tions by Tom, but told the Labor
Press they were “trumped up
poppycock.”
“Its purpose was to obfuscate,
to cloud the issue that somebody
was taking over,” he said.
Anderson and other members
of the CIC have continued to
meet “in exile,” most recently
March 2. A newly appointed
CIC met for the first time on
March 19.
Attorneys for both sides in
the dispute are preparing for
trial.
Labor Council endorses
TVF&R local option levy
Bethany Sherer
971.978.9534
12/31/19
2018
At the request of Fire Fighters
Local 1660, the Northwest Ore-
gon Labor Council endorsed
Measure 34-286, which will be
on the ballot that will go out to
voters in the Tualatin Valley Fire
& Rescue District for a May 21
election. Measure 34-286 re-
news a local option levy to
maintain emergency response
services and personnel hired
since 2000. It maintains the ex-
isting levy rate of 45 cents per
$1,000 of assessed valuation for
five more years. The current
levy expires in June 2020. For
an average property assessed at
$300,000, the cost of the local
option levy would be about
$135 per year or about $11.25 a
month.
If the levy renewal fails,
funding that pays for at least 92
of TVF&R’s 432 firefighters
and paramedics would be lost.
If it passes, levy funds will
maintain firefighter, paramedic,
and support staff positions.
Levy funding will also be used
to purchase land for future fire
stations, firefighting tools, and
medical equipment to ensure ef-
fective emergency response.