August 29, 2018
Page 15
‘I can win this’
C ontinued from P age 14
Portland and for policies that en-
courage city employees to reside
in the city or work from home to
help reduce automobile conges-
tion.
She’s also advocated for more
sidewalks and crosswalks be built
in outer east Portland, which has
suffered historically from a lack of
public infrastructure and transit.
Smith has refrained from fully
backing an I-5 Rose Quarter free-
way project until a state environ-
mental assessment on the expan-
sion is completed.
One of the proposals calls for
expanding the freeway in a key
area around the Rose Quarter
where traffic congestion is heavy,
in lieu of adding tolls there, which
Smith said may disproportionate
impact communities of color. She
added that safe and varied trans-
portation options for all are high
on her priority list.
“I want a multi-modal approach
to transportation with more op-
portunities for pedestrians and for
biking opportunities and ways for
vehicles to expand,” Smith said.
On the issue of policing, Smith
calls for better cultural sensitivity
training of police officers so that
they are better equipped to inter-
act with people of color, people
that have mental health issues,
and people with other challenges.
She lauded Police Chief Danielle
Outlaw for implementing training
against bias in May.
In addition to her eight years of
experience as a county commis-
sioner, Smith was an assistant to
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., for
more than 20 years. She worked
her way up from a receptionist
to a field representative for Mult-
nomah County while raising her
son in northeast Portland. Her dad
was an acclaimed boxer and her
mom, a union auto worker. Smith,
now a grandmother herself, is a
third generation Portlander.
Many prominent African Amer-
ican community leaders have en-
dorsed Smith, an alliance that has
held strong during her entire polit-
ical career.
Smith boasts the endorsements
of a controversial firing of a prom-
inent African American county
health supervisor, Tricia Tillman,
last year. More than a dozen oth-
er county employees’ testimonies
around that time also cited racism
involving county personnel.
Smith herself was the subject of
a county investigation that alleged
wrong way. “I’d be the first person
to stand up for someone who is in
trouble.”
Though Smith denies having
bullied anyone on her staff, she
took it upon herself to incorporate
sensitivity training in her office,
including for herself, and to make
it clear that open communication
regarding conflicts should be dis-
cussed civilly by both parties, an
approach she said she’ll continue
as a city commissioner.
“We don’t ever want anyone
Photo by d anny P eterson /t he P ortland o bserver
Wanda Coleman discusses the issues with Portland City Council Candidate Loretta Smith at the
Beech Street Block Party in northeast Portland Thursday. Smith, currently Multnomah County
Commissioner, has been attending community gatherings like this throughout the summer, hearing
from constituents in her race for a seat on the Portland City Council.
of every sitting black legislator in
the state, including state senators
Jackie Winters, James Manning
and Lew Frederick, who rep-
resents north and northeast Port-
land. Included in the list are for-
mer black lawmakers Avel Gordly
and Margaret Carter. Black lead-
ers defended Smith when she ac-
cused the county of systemic rac-
ism, and following the aftermath
she bullied her staff with deroga-
tory remarks about their ethnicity
and gender. The claims were un-
substantiated, Smith said, but she
expressed regret for anyone she
may have inadvertently offended.
“I had no intention of making
anybody feel uncomfortable or
hurt their feelings and I apologize
for that,” Smith said, adding that
her passionate and animated na-
ture can sometimes get taken the
to feel uncomfortable at all,” she
said.
Smith also boasts the endorse-
ments of many labor unions and
advocates of workforce develop-
ment.
She wants to create more ways
for women and minority business-
es to access capital, especially in
the tech industry.
Among some of Smith’s ac-
complishments as county commis-
sioner was creating the Summer
Works program, a jobs generator
for high-schoolers that boasted
over 600 jobs in its latest iteration.
The program was created after
Smith held a listening session of
African American men, ages 12 to
74, in part to help mitigate com-
munity violence from gangs.
“I’ve never seen a kid doing a
drive-by on their way to work,”
she said.
Smith also facilitated the con-
tinuation of an elderly care pro-
gram, called Project Indepen-
dence, that helped seniors age
gracefully in their homes; backed
a program providing housing for
homeless youth utilizing rental
and transitional housing assistance
to families; and helped develop an
ordinance to declare Multnomah
County as a “sanctuary county” to
support immigrants and refugees.
As the only second Afri-
can-American County Commis-
sioner in history, Smith also paid
homage to her predecessor, the
late Gladys McCoy, by naming
the entire county Health Depart-
ment building after the pioneering
black public official. A plaque in-
side honoring McCoy was created
to inspire other young people of
color who may have dreams of
running for public office one day,
Smith said.
“I know it so important for
young people to see people of col-
or who have done things and to be
reminded that they left a legacy in
this community,” she added.
Smith said diversity in public
office is one way to ensure com-
munities of color can feel heard.
“When people see me they feel
like think they have a voice. They
have someone that can relate to
them and that will listen to their
concerns. That’s why I’m excited
and inspired about being at City
Hall because it’s going to be a
new front door with Councilwom-
an Smith. People are going to feel
like they have access and that they
can come in and talk,” she said.