Page 8
2016 PORTLAND MAYOR'S RACE
Street Roots • April 8-14, 2016
A FEW OF THEIR
FAVORITE THINGS
Each candidate was
asked to select a local
artist - professional or
amateur - to draw his
or her favorite thing
about Portland. Their
submissions are on
Pages 8-10.
Jules Bailey submitted this art by Wilder Schmaltz.
QUIZ, from page 7
equity extraction that all profit-based Wall
Street banks inflict on cities who bank with
them. We must tackle the causes of issues
instead of only treating the symptoms and
wondering why we aren’t getting better.
1. Comprehensive investments into
transitional housing dedicated to solving
homelessness, long term. Emergency
services must happen in tandem with clear
paths to not needing those services in the
future.
2. Crime increases with disparity. It is
disparity that we must fight. Programs that
increase community empowerment, access
to education, economic equality and
opportunity are the answer. Not more police.
When given a choice between a bright future
and crime, people choose a bright future.
3. Land acquisition to ensure that every
Portlander has a park in their life. Parks are
the lungs of a city, and without them we will
suffocate.
I do want to answer this directly as well. I
would prioritize social services and the fire
bureau over parks and police funding.
Social sevices: 3.8 million
Fire Bureau: 2.7 million
Parks: 1.8 million
Police: 1.7 million
DEBORAH HARRIS
My first response would be to compliment
those agencies for showing a desire to
address and support the human needs of
people with a sense of urgency. Too often
leaders either fail to give recognition, or a
simple “thank you” to those who are
passionate in supporting economic stability
to improve and enhance the quality of life for
our communities. Yes, the cost and
benefit(s) of each need to be weighed due to
our instinct that one’s needs supersedes
another. I will request a review of analysis
and documents from each bureau defining
the expenditures for requested finances.
Knowing these represent critical issues that
mayors before me have allowed to set on the
shelf, I will effectively collaborate with
constituents, bureaus, analysts and related:
$17 million/$10 million. What do I do? At my
inception as the new mayor, I took an
important step by having an audit of the
treasury and audited our city’s debt
obligations. I can comfortably take the
available resources, divide them into our
cited neighborhoods thereby avoiding
behaviors that created a debt-ridden city
such as Detroit
SARAH IANNARONE
I’d take the $10 million and build a 311
system, including cost-effective digital
interfaces. Then, I’d reallocate the overall
savings to human services and parks.
DAVID SCHOR
I would try to raise more revenue, either
through fundraising, taxes or bonds. Barring
that, I would look for ways to reduce
administrative overhead, perhaps by
combining fire and police agencies.
Ultimately, I would ask the people of
Portland to help me set the priorities by
meeting with the public to seek their input I
expect that we would prioritize social and
emergency services, and accept some
increase in fire response times as well as
some decrease in parks and police services.
No agency will get all that it wants in this
scenario.
JESSIE SPONBERG
I’d be reluctant to give the police any
extra money so long as they fail to act in
good faith with the community. I would use
this leverage as part of the negotiations for
the new contract (and they have to fire Mark
Kruger). Of course they would immediately
threaten to cut our most vital services, as
usual. I won’t fall for that. The fire bureau
has Randy Leonard all over it, so assuming it
is halfway as wasteful as our Water Bureau I
would encourage them to stretch 4 million,
giving the full 5 million to social services
and asking our friends at the parks
department to be patient with me while I
find the funds and let the grass grow for
1 million. Of course, this is a hypothetical
box, and the trick answer is go cut your
bloated budgets. AUDIT TIME!
TED WHEELER
When you only have $10 million to deal
with $17 worth of needs, your approach
needs to be diligent, rigorous and creative.
That’s the approach I took as chair of
Multnomah County when we were faced
with massive budget shortfalls as the result
of the Great Recession. Among the
strategies we employed:
• We focused on the core mission of
county government, which was services for
our most vulnerable citizens.
• We examined whether county
leadership and manager ranks could absorb
cuts in order to protect front line workers.
• We asked our front line workers to tell
us what tools and resources were most
important to their job duties, and protected
them.
• We looked for technology innovations to
decrease the cost of providing services.
The city will increasingly be in a resource
constrained environment, and the next
mayor must have the budgetary experience
and expertise to navigate these challenges.
Sean Davis submitted this art by TL Steinbroner.
7 Yes or No: As mayor, will
Ub you end the practice of
contracting for military and
militarized equipment for use by
our police bureau?
J
Please place the following items
1 in order of priority as mayor.
Note with 1,2 and 3.
Increase parking
Bike infrastructure
Low- or no-fare public transit
JULES BAILEY: Yes.
PATTY BURKETT:
Yes.
Yes. My vision for our
police force has nothing in common,
in spirit or mission, with our war
making apparatus. When you wear thé
mask too long it becomes your face.
We have police officers dressed in all
black with weapons I carried during
wartime. We need community minded
ambassadors to repair our relationship
with our police bureau and our
neighborhoods.
SEAN DAVIS:
BIM DITSON: Yes.
DEBORAH HARRIS: Yes.
SARAH IANNARONE:
DAVID SCHOR:
Yes.
Yes.
JESSIE SPONBERG: As
a person who has
personally experienced pepper spray,
the LRAD device and flash grenades, I
will push hard to eliminate this
practice.
TED WHEELER:
Yes.
This Mt. Scott-
Arleta neigh
borhood mural
painted by
stencil artist
Tiago DeJerk
represents
“conviviality,
you know, that
joy we derive
from being in
community
with each
other,” says
Sarah
lannarone.
JULES BAILEY
1. Low- or no-fare
2. Increase parking
3. Bike infrastructure
public transit
2. Bike infrastructure
3. Increase parking
SARAH IANNARONE
PATTY BURKETT
1. Low- or no-fare
public transit
2. Bike infrastructure.
3. Increase parking
SEAN DAVIS
1. Low- or no-fare
public transit
2. Bike lanes
3. Increase parking
BIM DITSON
Bike infrastructure
Low- or no-fare
public transit
3. Increase parking
1.
2.
DEBORAH HARRIS
1. Low- or no-fare
public transit
1, Low- or no-fare
public transit
2. Bike infrastructure
3. Make downtown a
car-free zone
DAVID SCHOR
1. Low- or no-fare
public transit
2. Bike infrastructure
3. Increase parking
JESSIE SPONBERG
1. Low- or no-fare
public transit
2. Bike infrastructure
3. Increase parking
TED WHEELER
1. Low- or no-fare
public transit
2. Bike infrastructure
3. Increase parking
The
bast
ever
past