Page 4
October 9, 2019
In the Middle of a Fight
C ontinued froM f ront
ership Forum, the Coalition of
Communities of Color, Good in
the Hood, COFA Alliance Nation-
al Network, Diverse and Empow-
ered Employees of Portland, and
the Native American Youth and
Family Center.
Joy Davis, executive director
of the Portland African American
Leadership Forum, stated her sup-
port for the reforms in a letter to
the mayor and city council.
She described the benefits of a
new inclusive process of decision
making in Portland that “puts into
the center communities that have
been historically excluded and/or
disproportionately impacted by
decisions made in the past.”
For more than a year, a
25-member volunteer committee
has worked on provisions for re-
vising the code surrounding the
city’s 94 neighborhood associa-
tions. In her online blog, Eudaly
addressed a recent delay in pre-
senting the proposal to the full city
council after strong opposition by
neighborhood associations, saying
a new date of Nov. 14 has been
designated for its approval which
would allow the council more
time to consider the changes and
have a “public conversation” be-
fore the council votes on the final
package.
But Mapps argues that there
should have been more of a public
process before now.
“Clearly residents feel like
they haven’t been heard and had
a fair chance to participate in this
discussion,” he said. “I also wor-
ry and don’t understand why the
city isn’t focusing on trying to
strengthen neighborhood associa-
tions instead of taking a step away
from them. I’m utterly mystified
by that.”
Mapps said the current process
has missed opportunities to fix
things in the code that are broken.
“For example, no one is hap-
py with the grievance process for
neighborhood associations and
many neighborhood associations
want to do creative new things,
like partner with business associ-
ations that could be really exciting
and innovative,” he said. “But you
can’t do those because of restric-
tions placed in the current code.
We should go in and change that
so our neighborhood associations
can reinvent themselves for the
21st century.”
Mapps also objects to Euda-
ly’s changes to the city’s former
Crime Prevention Program, which
oversees Neighborhood Watch
programs by changing its name
to Community Safety and elimi-
nating foot patrols led by Portland
police.
“Public safety is a partnership
between the police, the city, the
county, the district attorney and
the public, and any time you say,
‘You’re not part of the safety solu-
tion,’ it’s like trying to box with
one hand tied behind your back,”
he said.
Mapps said pushing the police
out of the discussion is similar to
reducing the impact of neighbor-
hood associations without first
trying to find a consensus among
all the players.
“It really does take a whole vil-
lage to make a village safer,” he
said. “In the meantime, when we
exclude people from the table – a
theme that some up over and over
again at City Hall – we are liter-
ally undermining our own process
here.”
The city bureau that covers
neighborhood associations was
called the Office of Neighborhood
Involvement when it was headed
by Commissioner Amanda Fritz
and now is the Office of Commu-
nity and Civic Life under Euda-
ly. The two have publicly feuded
over the proposed code changes,
with Eudaly accusing Fritz of
“gross mismanagement” when she
oversaw the bureau.
Eudaly has said that the pur-
pose of the code change is to
bring more Portlanders into the
fold to influence city decisions.
A one-page flyer on the city
website with the heading, “The
Impact of the Code Change,”
states that the office “must work
to fortify new avenues for com-
munities who historically hav-
en’t walked the path limited to
those with privilege.”
The flyer states that the updat-
ed code will direct the city to in-
vest in and work with organiza-
tions that promote the common
good, establish a new foundation
for a more racially and socially
inclusive Portland, and empower
the office of Civic Life to work
more closely with other city bu-
reaus.
Eudaly said she is building on
former Mayor Tom Potter’s work
to revise the neighborhood asso-
ciation code a decade ago. She is
also responding to a 2016 audit of
the bureau that said the bureau was
not doing a good job of engaging
all the city’s residents. Mayor Ted
Wheeler assigned Eudaly the task
of revamping the department.
But Mapps said the discord
around the code change, which
has not received support from oth-
er commissioners, has made the
current effort unworkable.
“I really think we might have to
start the process all over,” he said.
“The process is tainted and I see a
lack of trust on both sides of the
table. It’s worth putting in the time
to get this right. If we don’t, we
run the risk of doing real harm to
the public trust.”
Neighborhood associations ar-
en’t perfect, Mapps said, but they
are required to not be discrimina-
tory and he’s concerned those pro-
tections might disappear with the
proposed changes.
“If we wash our hands of the
neighborhood association family,
the city really loses its ability to
demand that (they) are inclusive,”
he said. “I think it’s important to
get this right and the first step is
that we begin to listen to each oth-
er again.”
Mapps said the issue has been
so contentious that many people
think the end result will be inad-
equate.
“It’s a bad process and a bad
product,” he said.
Others disagree, such as Aman-
da Manjarrez, director of advoca-
cy at the Latino Network.
“Latino Network supports the
code change because we believe
that broadening opportunities for
marginalized communities to en-
gage directly with city govern-
ment is a clear starting point to
making our city more welcoming
and inclusive,” she said.
Marcus Mundy, another sup-
porter and the executive director
of the Coalition of Communities
of Color, was a member of the
committee charged with working
on recommendations to the code.
“Each proposed change reflects
the committee’s desire to include
more residents into the process of
government and, despite a surfeit
of misinformation to the contrary,
does not remove neighborhood
associations from participation
or consideration,” Mundy wrote.
“What it specifically does, howev-
er, is to extend the privilege and
right of civic engagement to more
residents.”