Local News
Leaders
Southeast Police Precinct Re-Opens
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ship program that focuses on the African
American experience looks like.
“What we talked about were issues that
face the Black community, as well as look-
ing at racial identity and developing racial
pride so that leaders can work on the issues
specific to our experience as Black people
in the United States and how we can be the
most effective, not just in the broader socie-
ty, but in our own communities,” she says.
The program has a two track system.
The first track is mandatory once a month
training that lasts for 12 months and focus-
es on cultural and racial development,
personal psychological develop-
ment, civics, and career
advancement. Trainings deal
with collective parts of the
African diaspora and the Black
American experience, such as
misogyny and homophobia in
the Black community and bi-
racial social dynamics. There is
even a kickoff focused on the
oral history of Blacks in Oregon
and Portland.
“It really touches on creating
—- Rachel Gilmer, a PAALF consultant
an entire, fully realized person,”
says Ashby.
The second track, which is
tees aren’t necessarily from what we voluntary, lasts nine months and is project
assume to be wrong in the Black communi- and service based. It requires a member to
ty,” she says. “They’re based on hardcore identify a problem in the community, usual-
data that we know underlines what specific ly as it applies to a PAALF subcommittee’s
priorities. Then he/she must submit a pro-
disparities exist.”
AALA falls under the category of Civic posal, create a methodology and talk about
Engagement and Leadership. It came about what the specific plan of action is to allevi-
as part of a million dollar grant from Meyer ate the problem. After nine months, the
Memorial Trust to the Coalition of Commu- member has to report back to the communi-
nities of Color, which PAALF is a member, ty.
As part of the second track, members will
to develop leadership capacity within their
be given financial resources through small
respective communities.
Representing the Black community, grants, as well as be matched up with men-
tors from the community. This is part of
PAALF received $115,000.
Desiree Williams-Rajee, co-chair of the PAALF’s emphasis on building intergenera-
Civic Engagement and Leadership subcom- tional relationships.
“There is a huge generational gap in this
mittee, says members convened many times
over the summer to discuss what a leader- community between established leaders and
Under the design, each city replicating the
Minneapolis program is empowered to cre-
ate policy committees that are specific to
the biggest disparities in their own commu-
nities.
PAALF has four subcommittees, which
are Education, Housing and Economic
Development, Health, and Civic Engage-
ment and Leadership.
According to Ashby, what distinguishes
PAALF from the Urban League and other
historical Black organizations is that it is
data focused.
“A lot of the priorities from the commit-
BRUCE POINSETTE PHOTO
‘There is a huge generational
gap in this community
between established leaders
and those who are up and
coming, or folks who are just
trying to figure it out.’
The Portland Police Bureau has officially re-opened the Southeast
Precinct, closed in 2009 due to budget cuts. The substation will house 16
officers and four sergeants who will report on day shifts only, seven days
a week. The Southeast Precinct citizen advisory council has continued to
hold monthly meetings at the precinct’s conference room despite its
closing three years ago. Mount Tabor resident David Hillman, above,
who has long been active in the group, said the community is
witnessing a change. “What this really means for all of us in this
community is the fact that there is now an opportunity for some
information and talent to be shared among many groups,” he says.
“The Precinct may be a small group to start with but we’re here to help
in any way we can.”
those who are up and coming, or folks who
are just trying to figure it out,” says Rachel
Gilmer, a PAALF consultant. “This is about
eliminating that generational divide and
getting people connected and supported.”
Applications for the African American
Leadership program are available on the
PAALF website. According to Williams-
Rajee, the program is looking for seasoned
professionals who are emerging into their
careers and a life of service.
For more information, go to PAALF’s
website at www.aalfnw.org/portland.
adversely, to people of color and to all types
of minorities, and to women—in terms of
women being able to get access to capital,
for example.
People of modest means, middle class
people, are unfamiliar with all the fine print.
And as a practical matter, most people need
to have a credit card, just to exist in this
chusetts, against Republican Sen. Scott
Brown, was a key figure in creating the
bureau. That’s your first clue about how
unpopular it is with Republicans. In fact, if
Mitt Romney wins the presidency in
November, Republicans in the House of
Representatives likely will kill or gut the
bureau. Bad idea, Stoll says.
“We would be moving backwards, back
to the deregulation that caused this problem
in the first place.”
The advisory board will teleconference
regularly and meet three times a year to
hold hearings –once in Washington DC and
twice a year in other cities.
Stoll’s also concerned about the impact of
a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows
people to waive their right to jury trial and
to bring class action suits.
“The consequence of that is that if you
have a complaint against your credit card
company, your telephone company or any-
body else, chances are you’ve given away
your right to trial by jury because when you
signed up, buried in the fine print there is a
waiver of your right to trial by jury, or your
right to bring a class action.
“Say you had a $5,000 claim. You can’t
find a lawyer to take a $5,000 case, it’s just
not economic. The only way that it’s eco-
nomic is if it’s done as a class action. So the
person has to go to arbitration and arbitra-
tions are usually very expensive.”
Stoll
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kinds of financial products. It’s also charged
with educating consumers, studying the
impact of financial products and services,
and making sure financial companies treat
consumers fairly.
Stoll worked with Sen. Jeff Merkley as he
pushed for financial sector reforms and
foreclosure help for underwater homeown-
ers. The reforms were badly needed, he
says.
“In my law practice I saw the devastation
these abuses caused,” Stoll says. “For
instance, a person when they would get auto
insurance and they had bad credit, they
would pay a higher auto premium than they
would if they had good credit. But when a
person pays their bills every month what
does their credit score have to do with how
good a driver they are?
They rip off largely poor people, and to
me that was just an outrageous thing.”
In 2007, Stoll’s firm won that case against
Hartford and six other insurers, returning
about $100 million to consumers.
Stoll says he is ready to go to bat for con-
sumers on issues such as: consumer and
investor fraud, the mounting costs of higher
education and student debt; mortgage and
foreclosure issues. Take student debt, for
example.
“We have a problem,” Stoll says. “Here
we are in the information age, and the cost
of higher education is horrendous. So you
have students finishing college or graduate
school with $100,000 of debt. That’s not
unusual. Too many young people are sad-
dled with that.
“Compare that to what we did after WWII
with the G.I. bill. There is a real issue here
of access to finance for people who want to
improve their lives. We have a serious prob-
lem with mortgages. Young people because
of their student debt can’t afford to get a
Stoll worked with Sen. Jeff Merkley as he pushed
for financial sector reforms and foreclosure help
for underwater homeowners
mortgage. The mortgage company won’t
talk to them because they have $100,000 or
$150,000 worth of debt. So that’s a big
problem.”
On Oct. 1, for example, the bureau
ordered three American Express companies
to repay $85 million in illegal credit
charges. The bureau said the companies had
deceived consumers, discriminated on the
basis of age, and charged illegal late fees.
The case shows just one reason why the
bureau is needed, Stoll says.
“Consumer finance to me has unfortu-
nately been too long discriminatory,
country really. There are relatively few
credit card companies. The forms are all the
same. The terms are all the same. And you
have this very one-sided contract. So hope-
fully the protection bureau will act to be
more protective of consumers.”
The bureau’s power to call out banks and
credit card companies, and to investigate
issues such as the burden of student loan
debt, takes it into controversial political ter-
ritory.
Former Harvard professor and longtime
consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren, who
now is running for U.S. Senate in Massa-
October 17, 2012
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