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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (July 13, 2022)
JULY 13, 2022 25 CENTS Portland and Seattle Volume XLV No. 22 News .............................. 3,8-10 A & E .....................................6-7 Opinion ...................................2 13-Year-Old Med Student .... 9 Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classifieds ....................11 CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW SOLAR PROUD Lisa Mensah Obama Nominee in as New OCF CEO Lisa Mensah returns to her home state. The Skanner News: What appealed to you about a leadership position at the Oregon Community Foundation (OCF)? Lisa Mensah: First of all, Oregon. The first appeal is in the O. I always say See MENSAH on page 3 Nipsey Hussle’s Legacy Inspires page 6 Franteece Jackson in front of her home, where PCEF funds and a partnership with AAAH enabled her to install energy-efficient solar panels. Solar Energy Push Creates More Robust Support for Black Homeowners African American Alliance for Home Ownership works with city, state agencies to repair and upgrade Black-owned homes. By Saundra Sorenson Of The Skanner News C heryl Roberts is proud of the day last April when her organiza- tion celebrated the installation of solar panels on homeowner Franteece Jackson’s Portland house. The executive director of the African American Alli- ance for Home Ownership says she believes Jackson is the first Black woman homeowner in the state to complete such a project. But Roberts was just as excited about the way her organization was able to pull together resources and, also using Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) mon- ey, help a new homeowner save the beloved house that had been willed to her by her grandmother. The house on Rose- lawn Street was likely to be a casualty of deferred maintenance – repairs and upgrades long put off due to homeowners’ lack of income and resources. When AAAH stepped in, they found the entire home needed new pipes or the owner was likely to lose it to flooding. AAAH was able to help in part through a partnership with the Port- land Water Bureau, called the Water Leak Program. “She was so excited that we pulled all types of re- sources together which totalled in the range of $30,000,” Roberts told The Skanner. “Now she has a good, safe home, and it’s energy efficient. And we helped save the home and that generational wealth.” It was the first such case funded through the vot- er-approved PCEF, which itself is funded by a tax on commercial businesses with sales of $500,000 or more within Portland, or sales of $1 billion or more nationally. In its inaugu- ral round this year, PCEF awarded $8.6 million to 45 grants. AAAH received about $569,000 for its Pow- er to the People program, which includes a 3:1 fund- ing match for “deep energy retrofits” and residential See SOLAR on page 3 Jan. 6 Probe: Trump Sets Rally After ‘Unhinged’ WH Meeting By LISA MASCARO and FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — In a heated, “unhinged” dispute, Donald Trump fought objections from his White House lawyers to a plan, eventually discarded, to seize states’ voting ma- chines and then, in a last ditch effort to salvage his presidency, summoned supporters to march on the U.S. Cap- itol for what turned into the deadly riot, the House Jan. 6 committee re- vealed Tuesday. In another disclosure, raising the question of witness tampering, the panel’s vice-chair said Trump him- self had tried to contact a person who was talking to the committee about potential testimony. And still more new information revealed that Trump was so intent on making a showing at the Capitol that his aides secretly planned for a second rally stage there on the day of the attack. See JAN 6 on page 3 PHOTO BY AP PHOTO/J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE T he new CEO of the Oregon Com- munity Foundation is an Oregon native with a background in fed- eral-level leadership. On June 28, the OCF board named Lisa Mensah its next CEO, only the fourth in the foundation’s almost half-century of operation. Mensah has served as the president and CEO of the Opportunity Finance Network for the past five years. Prior to that, she was Obama’s successful pick for under secretary of rural de- velopment within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where she served for two years. OCF described Mensah as “widely considered an expert on access to cap- ital in distressed and low-wealth com- munities and on the role of finance in social, economic, and racial justice.” The daughter of an immigrant from Ghana, Mensah holds a masters from the John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. She began her career in commercial bank- ing, then spent 13 years at the Ford Foundation, ending her time there as deputy director of economic develop- ment. “My optimism is not unfounded,” Mensah told The Skanner. “I have seen things work.” The Skanner spoke with Mensah about her vision for OCF, where she will begin her tenure in September. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. PHOTO BY PORTLAND BPS By Saundra Sorenson Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., speaks as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.
