December 13, 2017
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INSIDE
The
Week in Review
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Former Portland Mayor Vera Katz died Monday at the age of 84 after a long illness. Katz broke
gender barriers to become Oregon’s first female House speaker, and deployed a tough-but-tender
political style to also win three terms as Portland mayor. (AP/Rick Bowmer file photo)
Vera Katz Remembered
Three term mayor
broke barriers; had
tough but tender style
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
pages 7-11
Vera Katz, a former three-term Portland may-
or and first female speaker of the Oregon House
of Representatives who died Monday after a long
battle with complications from cancer is being re-
membered as a politician who broke gender barriers
and deployed a tough-but tender political style to
advance her priorities.
Katz was a one-time stay-at-home mom from the
1960s who was inspired to politics by listening to
Robert F. Kennedy talk about the poor and disadvan-
taged. She volunteered with Kennedy’s 1968 presi-
dential campaign and went on to serve a combined
30 years in the Oregon legislature and Portland city
government.
She broke the all-male restrictions at exclusive
social organizations, espoused progressive causes
such as gender equality and gay rights long before
they were main stream, and helped shape mod-
ern-day Portland.
“I’m truly saddened to hear of the passing of
Mayor Vera Katz, one of the strongest and most re-
spected leaders our city has ever had,” said Portland
Commissioner Dan Saltzman. “As Mayor, she never
took ‘no’ for an answer. She was incredibly vision-
ary, thoughtful and tenacious on a wide range of
civic issues, and I greatly enjoyed and respected her
leadership all the years we overlapped on Portland
City Council.”
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon called her as an
C ontinueD on P age 6
First Equity Director Resigns
O PINION
C LASSIFIEDS
C ALENDAR
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The first director of a Portland
office charged with removing bar-
riers in government for Portland-
ers of color and people with dis-
abilities is leaving his post.
Dante J. James announced his
resignation last week saying he
planned to move to Colorado to
reunite with his family.
James was hired in 2012 to run
the newly created office of Equi-
ty and Human Rights. Under his
leadership, the office elevated the
discussion and awareness of racial
issues in the city in order to reduce
disparities.
“Dante’s work was instrumen-
tal in creating the budget equity Dante J. James
tool and our plan to enhance eq-
uitable workforce development in
city construction projects through
our Community Equity and Inclu-
sion Plan, which was unanimously
adopted by City Council this year,
among many accomplishments,”
said Mayor Ted Wheeler. “His
leadership at the helm of OEHR
will be sorely missed.”
Wheeler has named Koffi
Dessou, currently equity and
business operations manager in
the equity office, as interim bu-
reau director. Dessou’s contribu-
tions to the city include creating
the city’s equity training and ed-
ucation program.