Why are so many members of a Portland Police
Bureau oversight board calling it quits?
BY EMILY GREEN
STAFF W R IT E R
ine months into its existence, the
community board put in place by the
U.S. Department of Justice to make
recommendations to the Portland Police
Bureau regarding its use of excessive force
has lost one-third of its voting members
and one alternate.
Each board member signed up for
what was supposed to be a two-year
commitment
These departures - including that
of its chair, former Oregon Chief
Justice Paul DeMuniz, in April -
have complicated what’s already
proved to be a daunting and
overwhelming task for some
members.
In the wake of DeMuniz’s
resignation, a pattern of infighting,
mistrust and general frustration with
a lack of process emerged.
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being
hushed and
that the
COAB was
set up to fail.
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th e C o m m u n ity O v e r sig h t an d A d v iso r y
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B o ard , o r COAB, h a s a n im p o rta n t jo b to
do r- and it’s at the center of rebuilding the
community’s trust with the Portland Police
Bureau.
In 2012, a federal investigation found
Portland police used excessive force with
people who were or appeared to be mentally
ill. As a result, in 2014, a settlement
agreement was approved, and the bureau
was given five years to come into
compliance with a long list of Department of
Justice requirements that included changes
to policy, training and oversight
The settlement was unique in that it
created a board made up of unpaid
volunteers selected for the task of making
recommendations to the Police Bureau and
assisting with oversight of the bureau’s
compliance with the settlement agreement
The COAB includes 15 voting members
representing various factions of the
community, five Portland Police Bureau
representatives and several non-voting
alternates^
“Since we’re focused on the mental
health community,” COAB member Bud
Feuless said, “we selected members who
currently struggle with or who have
struggled with mental health, and so that’s
unique; it’s special. But it also gives us some
very unique and special challenges.”
Of the six members who’ve left the
COAB, two were self-identified as having
mental illness, however many board
members who’ve experienced mental illness
did not identify themselves as such during
the application process, said Feuless —
herself included.
Reasons members gave for leaving the
COAB vary. Some cited personal reasons;
two resigned from other boards, negating
their membership: and others left because
the time
commitment
was misrepresented to them during the
application process.
The application said participation would
take 10 hours per month, but several past
and present members of the COAB told
Street Roots they spent upward of 40 hours
per month on COAB-related work. Some
said they spent 20 or 30 hours per week on
the COAB, from research and homework to
subcommittee meetings and community
engagement
Sharon Maxwell became the most recent
voting member to leave the COAB, and she
called for two audits on her way out the
door.
Her resignation letter, dated Oct 7, was
sent to the city auditor, committee
members, city council members and the
federal judge who issued the settlement,
among others.
Maxwell served on numerous boards and
civic committees, including Groundwork
Portland and the city’s Minority Evaluator
Program.
Her letter contains a numbered list of 11
reasons for resigning, culminating in what
she called a “betrayal to every Portland
resident in this city.”
•
In an interview with Street Roots,
Maxwell, a Portland native, said that to heal
the broken trust between Portlanders and
their police, the settlement process must
have meaningful community engagement,
but some members think their voices are
letter requested
audits of the hiring
process for the
Compliance Officer-
Community Liaison team
and its budget
The Compliance Officer-Community
Liaison, also established under the
Department of Justice settlement is an
independent agency hired to act as liaison
among the COAB, the city, the Department
of Justice and the Police Bureau and to
conduct oversight of the settlement’s
implementation.
The Compliance Officer-Community
Liaison is made up of a Chicago-based team,
Dennis Rosenbaum and Amy Watson.
Locally, the team hired longtime community
activist Kathleen. Saadat to facilitate the
COAB meetings after DeMuniz resigned for
personal reasons. Amy Ruiz, former chief of
staff to Mayor Sam Adams, was hired to
assist Saadat
Concerns Maxwell laid out in her
resignation letter and accompanying email,
such as what she said was the Compliance
Officer-Community Liaison’s failure to
support COAB members, were echoed by
former COAB member Kristi Jamison and
current member Myrlaviani Rivier during
interviews with Street Roots. All three
expressed frustration over the lack of
process and confusion surrounding the
COAB’s role in the settlement and worried
the group was ineffective.
Saadat said her greatest frustration has
been “the lack of sound foundation being
laid for this board” and noted the training
arid orientation for board members at the
outset were not sufficient But, she said,
“it’sgetting better. It’s more functional than
it was a few months ago.” .
In regard to the time commitment
required of board members, she said, “some
are spending a lot of time, some are
spending a little, depending on interest or
job status.”
Tasked with serving as mental health
s u p p o rt to th e COAB is Brad T aylor. H e ’s a
city employee with 15 years experience in
the social-service arena, and he expressed
major concerns about the COAB’s
functionality.
(Taylor is also sits on. Street Roots’ Board
of Directors.)
Among COAB members, rumors
circulated that Taylor was sending secret
reports to the city about their behavior
during meetings. On Tuesday, Taylor’s
supervisor, Stephanie Reynolds, program
manager at the Office of Neighborhood
Involvement, issued a statement to COAB
members, stating that these rumors were
false.
What Taylor was actually reporting were
his concerns about the group environment
and recommendations he believed would
address issues of mistrust and dysfunction.
In April, Taylor sent an email to the
Compliance Officer-Community Liaison
stating, “It seems that the COAB was put to
work, starting from an already behind
position,” and noting it was handed a full
agenda before fully understanding what its
role was under the settlement agreement,
and before its members were able to get an
understanding of each other’s backgrounds
and priorities.
He said he was also concerned that much
of the communication between COAB
members was taking place in private emails.
“If a member of the public were to ask to
see what the COAB has been considering, I
would need to print hundreds of pages of
emails, and the format would be almost
impossible to follow.”
Watson said COAB members should be
using its website forums to communicate,
but use has been sporadic.
See COAB page 5