Stonewalled

Here's a polite but outraged op-ed in the O from the person running the advisory committee to the Multnomah County bureaucracy on the homelessness budget. The county, he says, is hiding information and frustrating the advisory panel's work.

That the county dishonestly brushed off our direct inquiry casts doubt on its commitment to public engagement. In doing so, it arrogantly undermines every Portlander’s resolve to end our homelessness crisis, highlighting an urgent need for transparency and accountability.

Even as news stories earlier this year highlighted the office’s underspending of homeless services tax dollars, the office refused to answer our questions. Despite language in the county code that suggests otherwise, the Joint Office insisted our committee focus only on their budget plans and ignore actual spending. And in June, Joint Office staff stopped providing updates on Joint Office work and stated they would not assist us in our upcoming meetings, citing a letter from Chair Jessica Vega Pederson that dryly asserts our committee reached “the conclusion of this cycle’s engagement process.”

Despite repeated formal requests our committee has not had the opportunity to meet with Chair Vega Pederson or any representative from her office. If the chair actually intends to dissolve our committee, I challenge Vega Pederson to take the board vote required by the county charter.

Oh, that Chevy Vega. She's a lemon, that's for sure.

But it's classic Oregon "advisory committee" procedure, of course. When the bureaucrats and politicians like what you're about to say, they're all about you standing up and saying it. The minute you start to hold them accountable, you're cancelled.