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March 31. 2010
Candidates Count on Experience
Gary Hansen
Hansen asks
voters to return
him to office
Gary Hansen, a former Metro counselor,
state legislator and county commissioner
has filed for his old office to represented
north and n o rth east P ortland on the
Multnomah County Commission. Hansen
spoke to the Portland Observer about some
o f his issues:
What are your priorities?
They’re relatively simple. I’d like to place
workers at our county jails to help the men
tally ill who are sometimes on a revolving
door at the jails. In some cases, people are
very much eligible for benefits, and that
includes health, which might include drugs
that may really help stabilize them, but they’re
too fragile to know how to get their cases
reestablished. So the first thing is to move
some caseworkers’ right into the jail system
itself. More long term is to convince the
Legislature that the tobacco settlement dol
lars, that so far have been used to pay off Maria Rubio
some education bonds, be shifted to commu
nity mental health. And I think this is a real
good time to do that because the state’s
looking at opening a state mental hospital.
How about with law enforcement? With
the recent shootings do you see anyway to
better incorporate mental health with law
enforcement?
It would be an incredible improvement
Maria Rubio worked for former Mayor
to get response teams that include mental Tom Potter as an advisor on public safety,
health workers. One o f the problem s with bringing decades o f experience with her to
the job. She now hopes to represent north
continued
on page 8
and northeast Portland on M ultnom ah
County Commission. The Portland Observer
talked to her about her priorities for the job:
Rubio draws
on prior work
with Tom Potter
NEW S E A S O N S
What are you running?
My priorities are public safety, equity, and
collaborative governance. I’m very interested
in looking at our public safety system city and
county wide. I worked for Mayor Tom Potter
for four years, and during that time we funded
a study to look for ways the county and city
could save money and be efficient and effec
tive. I’m also very interested in disaster pre
paredness and making sure our communities
are prepared. In particular, I'm interested in
reaching communities that are more vulner
able. With equity. I'm interested in health
equity, economic equity, in terms o f living
wage jobs. I would really like to blur the lines
o f governance [between the city and the
county] so we can work more closely together.
What are some examples o f that?
The mental health system and how the
police are having to deal with m ental ill
ness and where those things cross. One
source o f m ental health funding belongs
to the county and the police are under the
control o f the city.
What are you most proud o f from your
work in Tom Potter's office and what would
you like to bring to the county?
I was the mayor's public safety policy
advisor. I was working with the Police Bu
reau trying to change the organizational cli
mate and how they do business. Part o f the
mayor's goal was to incorporate more com
munity policing goals. People were
continued
on page 8
¡MARKET)
TIWeek
N O W D E L IV E R IN G
The Review
Y o u r fa v o r ite n e ig h b o r h o o d g r o c e r y s to r e n o w d e liv e r s
unurcn snooier bentencea
g r o c e r ie s r ig h t to y o u r h o m e o r o ffic e .
Latwan Brown, 32, was sentenced
to a minimum o f 20 years in prison
Monday for shooting another man
to death at Portland’s New Hope
Missionary Baptist Church during
a December 2008 funeral. The vic
tim, Darshwan Cross died. Police
said both men had a history o f gang
involvement.
Terrorism in Moscow
Two suicide blasts ripped through
two commuter trains in Moscow dur
ing the morning commute on Mon
day, killing at least 38 people and
injuring dozens o f others. Russian
officials blamed the coordinated
bombings on homegrown Islamist
rebels.
Militia Plotted Cop’s Deaths
Federal raids in Michigan, Ohioand
Indiana lead to the arrests o f nine
Christian militia members Monday
alleged to have been plotting to kill
a police officer and bombing his
funeral procession.
Pipe Bomb Causes Boom
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you click, we deliver, (or pull up for pick up)
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A loud explosion Sunday night that
shook homes in southeast Portland
has been traced to a pipe bomb
explosion along the Willamette River
near the Sellwood Bridge. Police
were trying to figure out who deto
nated the bomb and why.