ÿortlanh (Dhseriier
December 15, 2010
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H ealth
Focus is on Job Creation:
L aw
Hughes’ vision for Metro Council’s future
J ustice
In N ovem ber, form er H illsboro
M ay o r T o m H ughes squeaked out
about 1,000 votes m ore than o p p o ­
nent and form er 1000 Friends o f
O reg o n E x ecu tiv e D irecto r Bob
S tacey, becom ing M etro C ouncil
p resident, a jo b that w ields trem en ­
dous influence over the tri-county
a re a ’s grow th and econom y.
W ith the region facing a c h ro n i­
cally soggy econom y, H ughes has
put his sights squarely on jo b cre­
ation and reviving the econom y. To
g et a sense o f w hat H ughes w ants
to do w ith the position as top elected
official for the region, the Portland
O b serv er sat dow n w ith him to d is­
cu ss the c h allen g e s o f m in o rity
populations, the potential im pact o f
the C o lu m b ia R iver C ro ssin g on
north and northeast Portland, and
o th er topics. H is rem arks have been
edited fo r clarity.
pages 6-7
ENTEDEAINMENE
pages 10-13
C alendar
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C lassifieds
F o o d
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NUCLEAR
WINTER.
pages 19
Portland Observer: In the past
fe w years, there have been some
unsettling reports that have come
out on the state o f minorities in the
area: the State o f Black Oregon
and the Coalition o f the Communi­
ties o f Color report. As Metro Coun­
cil president, how do you make
sure that everyone can enjoy the
region’s livability?
Tom Hughes: W e need to get
jo b s in places w here they are not as
accessible to m inority populations.
T he oth er thing th a t’s im portant for
us to do as a region is to com e to a
b etter appreciation about the status
o f minority populations. Historically,
Portland w as the place you w ere
looking for. C om m unities o f co lo r
w ould com e to Portland.
T oday, because o f a lot o f the
g entrification th a t’s gone on, the
com m unities o f color have dispersed
around the region, so th e re ’s a lot in
G resham ; there are a lot o f c o m m u ­
nities o f co lo r out in places like
B eaverton and H illsboro. I think that
that creates a series o f issues. It’s
hard to target econom ic recovery to
a certain geographic location as a
w ay o f im proving the econom ic lot
o f co m m u n ities o f co lo r because
they are dispersed around the re­
gion.
So you basically have to do a
couple o f things. A s a region, we
need to have a m ore robust jo b
grow th than w e do now . W e need to
identify w ays through, on the one
Tom Hughes, Metro Council president-elect.
hand, affirm ative action program s and sm all contractors. A s M etro
fo r governm ent jo b s, and, on the funds projects in the area like tran s­
oth er hand, training grants and oth er p o rtatio n pro jects, o r tra n sp o rta ­
kinds o f efforts to m ake sure the tion-oriented dev elo p m en t, and if
w orkforce has a substantial elem ent we scale those right, a lot o f m inority
that is part o f the m inority c o m m u ­ contractors — w hich tend to be
nities. So w e need to do a b etter jo b sm all business people — can b e n ­
to m ake sure that there is training efit.
available for all segm ents o f the
O ne o f the difficulties w e have is
population.
that these big projects tend to be
Part o f the reality isn ’t ju st b e ­ scaled at a level that only big c o m ­
cause it’s the right thing to do, but panies can bid on. If you scale the
it’s also the sensible thing to do jo b d ifferently you can attract sm all
because in an econom y th a t’s g ro w ­ b usinesses and it’s easier to put in
ing rapidly, and unfortunately ours a requirem ent, an en fo rceab le re­
isn ’t right now , one o f the things quirem ent, that we give m inority
that you begin to experience are co n tracto rs an opportunity to do
restraints on the w orkforce; you that.
d o n ’t have enough m em bers o f the
PO: What are the jo b s o f the
w orkforce. T he reality is w e c a n ’t future?
really afford to lose any m ajo r e le ­
T H : I think in this region w e ’re
m ents o f o ur population from the going to have a trem endous o p p o r­
w orkforce. So to the degree that any tunity in health care, all the w ay from
g ro u p o f p e o p le — m in o ritie s, biotech dev elo p m en t up through,
w om en, people w ho are not well and including, all o f the m edical
trained because o f their econom ic delivery p rofessions — from alter­
status — all those people need to natives like nurse p ractitio n ers to
have training available for them so p h y sician ’s assistant, all the w ay
that they are q u alified fo r the jo b s o f up to doctors. W e actually had over
the future, or else w e w o n ’t have a the last few years in this state a
w orkforce sufficient to a cco m m o ­ trem endous d isinvestm ent in hig her
date that grow th.
ed. T hat, I think, has been tragic,
PO: Metro has some contracts and puts us at a d isad v an tag e in
set aside fo r minority business en­ term s o f lots o f o p p o rtu n ities that
terprises. I was hoping you could m ight be available. But health care is
talk a little bit about that.
actually one w e ’ve seen an increase
T H : A s a large go v ern m en t e n ­
tity, w ith a nu m b er o f grant p ro ­
g ram s and o th e r things that are
a im e d at stim u la tin g e c o n o m ic
grow th, M etro has the opportunity
to w ork w ith m inority contractors
in program s.
So w e really are at the c e n te r o f
w here we can train m ore health care
w orkers. W e ’re ch ro n ically short o f
continued
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