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.