Street Roots • May 6-12, 2016
News
Page 10
Jessica
iw
Pederson
Running unopposed,
the veteran state
lawmaker is getting
ready for her new role
on the Multnomah
County Board of
Commissioners
BY ANN-DERRICK GAILLOT
STAFF WRITER
f you’re a voter living in East Portland,
chances are your choice for Multnomah
.County Commissioner will be an easy
one. State Representative Jessica Vega
I
Pederson is running unopposed for the
county commissioner seat representing
District 3, an area that extends roughly from
Cesar Chavez Boulevard to Southeast 148th,
bordered by 1-84 to the north and Clackamas
County to the south. The first Latina ever
elected to the House, Vega Pederson has
spent the past four years representing
District 47 in Salem, serving on the Joint
Committee on Department of Energy
Oversight, the House Committee on
Judiciary, and as the Chair of the House
Committee on Energy and the Environment
She will be replacing Judy Shiprack, who has
served as County Commissioner for District
3 since 2008.
Street Roots spoke with State Rep. Vega
Pederson about her vision for East Portland
and her goals as county commissioner.
Aim-Derrick Gaillot: What areas of
government are you most interested in working
with as county commissioner?
Jessica Vega Pederson: The air toxins
issue is something that I’m very concerned
about. As that continues to unfold and as
we’re looking at it from a public health
perspective, I think the county can play a
big role in that But ultimately, East
Portland has the highest rent increases
happening right now in this city, so the
affordability of housing and the
homelessness issue are some of the things
that are going to be absolutely critical that
we’re going to need to work on. And those
are two issues that the county is not going
to be able to fix by itself. No one agency or
government or organization will be.
A-D.G.: How will you get other
municipalities to better address housing and
homelessness?
3N.V;. I have good relationships with
people who work at the city level, with the
PHOTO COURTESY OF JESSICA VEGA PEDERSON
commissioners, with my colleagues at the
state, and also with the other
commissioners and Metro, too, for that
matter. So I think it’s using the relationships
to have very honest conversations and
productive conversations about what needs
to be done.
A-D.G.: What will you do to make sure
there’s affordable housing countywide?
J.V.P.: I think we have to do a couple of
different things. I was really proud to be
able to support the removal of the ban on
inclusionary zoning. It’s going to help us as
we’re building to make sure that we’re
including affordable housing in the mix. It
actually didn’t go as far I would like to see.
There are certain limitations on it that we’ll
need to work on in the future, but I think it
was a good first step. It’s also making sure
that, as people are building affordable
housing, we are doing it throughout the city
so that people have access to where they’re
working, where the best transit is, access to
services like parks and all of those things.
Finally, this is relatively a new area for the
county to get involved in, the affordable
housing piece. And so I’d like to, as a
commissioner, help follow along with the
direction that we’ve started going and look
at the policies that we can put in place,
incentives that we can do at a county level,
to help develop more affordable housing.
A-D.G.: What’s one promise you can make
and deliver on to the many communities of
color in your district?
J.V.P.: One that I can make is to take a
very serious look at the racial and ethnic
diversity within the Multnomah County
government itself - our employees, the
programs that we have, who we’re
contracting with, all of that - to take a
measurement of where we are, and then
help put programs in place that help
everybody, but specifically the people of
color who are working in the government,
do personal and professional development to
get the skills they need to achieve the next
step in the ladder for their careers. Also, it’s
very important to me to have a diverse staff.
So that’s a commitment I can make as well.
A-D.G.: How will you address the racial
disparity issues in Multnomah County jails?
J.V.P.: We need to take a very serious
look at what’s happening in our jails. It’s,
again, making sure that we’re hiring people
who realize the impact of their behavior and
have the training they need in order to
recognize what’s happening. The training is
the big piece of it, but I think this is also
something that has to come from the top
down. We need to make sure that they know
it’s a priority of the commission, it’s a
priority of their leadership, that this is
unacceptable and it has to change and then
give them the tools they need to be able to
change and to have the knowledge and the
skills they need to do their job in a more
equitable way.
A-D.G.: Do you think Multnomah County
Sheriff should be an appointed or an elected
position?
J.V.P.: I have a little concern that we
would be the only county of our size that
would have an appointed position, but it was
an appointed position in the past and it
seemed to work well, so I’m interested to
see how the discussion with the charter
committee goes and then go from there.
A-D.G.: As you work to improve all kinds of
infrastructure in your district, how will you
ensure that improved infrastructure doesn’t
involuntarily displace lowdncome residents?
J.V.P.: I think it’s looking at how do you
create permanently affordable housing in
communities so that even as neighborhoods
change there remains the ability for people
to stay in place, to live in place, because
we’ve made that investment in permanent
affordability. I also think that a lot of it has
to do with workforce development and
giving people the opportunity to participate,
as the community changes, in what’s
happening in their community economically.
A-D.G.: Do you support safe injection sites?
J.V.P.: I think it’s an interesting idea and
I’d like to learn more about it, but I have
questions about how it would work and what
exactly that would mean.
A-D.G.: What’s one project that you’re
excited about?
J.V.P.: I’m really excited about the Unity
Center, the coalition with OHSU and the
city and the county and so many other
organizations that are looking at having a
central location for mental health services. I
think that’s going to be a great model and
we need to do more investment in mental
health, as well. This is a really big issue and
again there’s a lot of really good work being
done to address and put more resources to
the issue, so we need to continue that. I
also think, and this couples with what’s
happening right now with the houseless
population, having services that go out to
where people are to help make that first
step of getting help is something that we’ll
need to work on, too.