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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 2018)
2018 ELECTIONS Page 4 Street Roots • Oct. 19-25, 2018 WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT DIVERSITY, HOUSING, H O M E L E S S l M I I I I J I Street Roots asked both candidates for Portland City Council to respond to five questions in 1,200 words or less. The first question was unique to each candidate. The remaining questions were asked o f both candidates. JOANN HARDESTY LORETTA SMITH ■ President of the Portland Chapter of the NAACP, 2015-2018 ■ Two-term Multnomah County Commissioner 2010-2018 ■ Executive director of Oregon Action, 2002-2010 • ■ Assistant, later Portland field representative for U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, 1987-2010 ■ State Representative, Oregon Legislature, 1997-2000 1. What changes to the labor agreement between the city and Portland Police Association will you push for during negotiations of the next contract beginning in 2020? First and foremost, I want the police contract negotiations to he more . community oriented. Because of the broken relationship between the Police Bureau and many members of our community, improving this process gives the city an opportunity to heal. I would start bargaining by bringing a set of values brought forth from our community - values like community policing, an officer code of conduct, and training standards that improve equity and address bias. I would also do early surveys of police officers to get their input on how we can improve public safety overall and community engagement. Secondly, the city needs to retain the ability to let an officer go if circumstances warrant that decision, and I will make sure that our officers are held to the highest possible standard to ensure community safety. Lastly, I will review any language regarding personnel files and the length of time that disciplines remain in an officer’s file. It’s possible the current contract allows disciplines to be removed after a certain length of time. If so, we need to review that language. We need to make sure that we have a strong process in place that does not allow for longtime, problem officers to remain on the job whose disciplines are no longer able to be used in a progressive process. These changes could create a set of standards and values to allow officers who want to be part of our diverse community to stay and thrive, and could repair the reputation of the Portland Police Bureau. I know that the Portland Police Bureau shares the value of protecting and serving our community. That’s why I feel like we will be able to get to agreement on these and other issues. 2. Describe one specific action you will take to improve the lives of people of color living in Portland. First we have to address issues in this city that are impacting people of color disproportionately. Issues like affordable housing, access to transportation, access to parks and community services. By focusing on communities of color we can lift all boats that are struggling economically in our city. Another priority would be joining Commissioners Eudaly and Fritz to pull out of the Joint Terrorism Task Force. In today’s world we. cannot trust that our federal government has community interest or safety for people of color in their plans for the JTTF. I would however, be interested in investing resources and joining with the FBI and other watch groups to monitor the activities of white- supremacist groups in our community. We have to keep Portland free of hate. This is also why I strongly and adamantly oppose Measure 105. It will do nothing but drain our law enforcement resources and put our communities at risk. See HARDESTY, page 5 1. Many people and organizations that work directly with homeless folks, including Street Roots, are opposed to turning Wapato jail into a mass homeless shelter, citing its lack of proximity to other services and trauma- jB^y£iDfljgi!!loMsgJgeLg§J^ell as concerns that thjs approach aims more fO Td evu IneraB E peopieTrom p u l^ v T e w than to improvetheir fives." * Given those concerns, why do you advocate for using Wapato as a homeless shelter? Because I don’t want to have another homeless person die this winter because they don’t have shelter. Wapato is not a perfect solution, but it is one solution. It is also not intended to be a long-term shelter but rather a temporary triage center with wrap-around services. With winter around the corner and at least 1,700 of our neighbors unsheltered, we need housing now. We’re in a housing crisis, Portlanders are dying on the streets. Let’s work together to make Wapato a place where we can save lives, connect people to services and care for our city’s most vulnerable. 2. Describe one specific action you will take to improve the lives of people of color living in Portland. Every budget decision will be viewed through an equity lens. The first action I would take is to expand our program to help prepare people of color, other vulnerable populations, including seniors, people with disabilities, and the unsheltered ready for a major earthquake. As the commissioner in charge of the Bureau of Emergency Management and the Fire Bureau, I would expand the outreach program to get our most vulnerable residents prepared, to have an emergency kit and a plan. This is critical to help our city to be more resilient when, not if, the major earthquake will happen. 3. How should City Council and Portland Police Bureau respond to the high arrest rate - 52 percent in 2017, according to The Oregonian - of people experiencing homelessness? We should not be criminalizing those experiencing homelessness. We need to find a place for them to go to get wraparound services they need. So many of our neighbors living on our streets have drug and alcohol and/or mental health issues; that’s why opening Wapato as a triage center is another tool for us to address this issue and decrease the homeless in our city. Portland has expert service providers who can provide residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation, mental health services and job training programs for these individuals. 4. From Kenton Women’s Village to Dignity Village, Hazelnut Grove to Right 2 Dream Too, the city has come to support some self-governed See SMITH, page 5
