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In addition to voting for a new governor, Multnomah County residents will be considering a host of local ballot measures, as well as a new county commissioner in district 2. They'll also be joining Washington and Clackamas county voters in deciding whether or not approve a TriMet bond measure that will affect property taxes in all three counties.
The TriMet bond continues funding for the agency through property taxes at the current rate of about .08 cents per $1000 in assessed value. Voters originally approved the tax in 1990. If the measure fails, property owners will see a reduction in their taxes in 2012. If it passes, the funding will continue over the next 20 years. TriMet says the money is needed to improve buses and bus stops as well as services for the elderly and disabled. While there is no organized opposition to the bond, riders have expressed concerns, especially in light of TriMet's recent decisions to cut routes and raise fares.
Another contest many people seem to be watching — judging from the lawn signs peppered throughout Multnomah County — is the race for county commissioner between Karol Collymore and Loretta Smith. Smith, a longtime Portland resident, has been a staffer for U. S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) for the past two decades. Collymore moved to Stumptown about seven years ago from New Mexico and currently works as senior policy adviser to Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen. Collymore garnered a significant portion of the primary votes, but the race appears to have narrowed over the past few months.
Also on the ballot in Multnomah County is a levy to support the Oregon Historical Society. We've discussed the organization's financial woes before and things haven't gotten better since that show over a year ago. The levy would provide a boost to OHS through property taxes at the rate of .05 cents per $1000 in assessed value.
What questions do you have about the Oregon Historical Society levy? How is the Historical Society relevant to your life? Are you a Multnomah County voter? What do you want from your county commissioners? Do you ride TriMet? What questions do you have about the bond measure?
Tagged as: 2010 election
Photo credit: Michael Clapp/OPB News
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I'm not surprised you don't appreciate OHS since you've never been there. How could you know what it offers that would interest you!
I don't hear you suggesting that the Multnomah County Library be supported by patronage. Or the public schools. Or the Fire Department.
OHS is so much more than a museum (not that that part isn't wonderful and enriching to our lives), it's also a keeper of our heritage, a place where we all can go to find our past. It's not just a place for historians to do research, e.g. anyone can go look for photos of their city, their neighborhood (and you can get a copy!), peruse journals written by pioneers coming across the Oregon trail, read newspapers going way back from all over the state.
I could go on and on, but the point is our history is IMPORTANT and OHS makes it ACCESSIBLE TO ALL. And when this measure passes entry to OHS, both the library and museum, will be free for everyone living in Multnomah County and to school children from the whole state.
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Every state historical society in the nation receives public support -- there aren't any that rely solely on patronage alone. This is because historical societies performs services that are beyond an exhibit. These include archiving state treasures, documents and photographs, providing research assistance to every kind of researcher, and so on.
Public support, therefore, is a fundamental part of any historical society's business model.
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I'm baffled by the statement "Oregon history is a luxury". Does this also mean that education is a luxury? After all, they are the same thing. The Oregon Board of Education requires two years of Oregon history for every student in the state - should we cut those luxurious classes, as well?
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If/when you present another Think Out Loud program on the November election (such as the 10/25 one on Multnomah County), please tell your audience about an excellent new source of voter information sponsored by the League of Women Voters. Voters who go to VOTESOURCE.org, find the BUILD MY BALLOT block, and type in their address and zip code, will see information on the ballot choices for their area.
In Multnomah County, the information includes local races and ballot measures (down to the Water Districts), in Ashland, it includes the City Council races; in Clackamas County, the County races; and for other communities in Oregon, people will see information on the state-wide ballot measures and candidates.
VOTESOURCE uses the same format as the Oregonian’s on-line voter guide, but we believe that the League’s information is better and more comprehensive. (Both sites have gaps where some candidates chose not to submit responses.) The balanced, hype-free League information should be a valuable resource for voters who want to know more about their choices this fall. Thank you for helping us spread the word about this valuable resource.
Betsy Pratt
President, LWV of Portland
(503) 228-1675
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The Tri-Met vote is an easy NO Vote - their management and union has reached the point of zero creditability. Other tax votes are more difficult, but my recent property tax bill has made them easier. Once again, the amount due has increased! The automatic increase, regardless of market conditions, economic conditions, employment rates, etc NEEDS TO STOP! I'm voting NO on all measures that will increase property taxes.
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kind of too knee jerk imo. think about the kind of world you want to live in not just what it costs. no pain, no gain.
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I'd like a "Transit World" where the management and union spend our money wisely. If they can not make reasonable, hard choices, then they do not deserve more of our money! 150%+ benefits and trains/trams with very little ridership is not sustainable.
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The Oregon Historical Society was created by the Oregon State Legislature in 1899 and for over a century, its primary financial support has been provided by the Oregon State Legislature. It is not a business, per se, but a publicly created institution whose whole mission is to educate the public about Oregon's history. It is utterly ridiculous to say that the Oregon Historical Society should create a long term funding plan that excludes what has been its primary source of revenue for over a century. That line of thinking might work for Nike, Columbia, Intel or some other actual business, but is does not work for what is in essence an educational institution that has always been largely publicly funded.
Additionally, the concept of users or members of OHS is misleading. Any time someone watches Oregon Experience, or stops to look at a historical plaque, or thumbs through a book on Oregon's history, they are more than likely going to come across images or research that came directly from the Oregon Historical Society's archives. Everyone in this state has been a "user" of the Oregon Historical Society, regardless of whether or not they have ever walked through the front doors of the main building.
And that is why the Oregon Historical Society is so important for Oregon, even if many people don't realize it: ALL Oregonians benefit from OHS's resources. Likewise, ALL Oregonians will lose if the Oregon Historical Society closes.
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So true!!
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The Oregon Historical Society museum is great and a wonderful resource for all of us but we need to also be aware of the ways OHS impacts us even if we never enter the building.
Many books, films and other actually products exist because their creators were able to find the materials and information they needed in OHS's archives. Those photographs of old Portland we enjoy in restaurants and other public places almost certainly came from OHS's photo archives (you can go there and order a photo too!).
There is so much in the OHS library. For example, OHS has hundreds of hours of recordings of Oregonians, famous and ordinary, talking about their lives, about what happened here. And you can go listen to them, hear our history in their actual voices. At least you can now. If you want to be able to in the future Vote Yes on 26-118
My biggest worry, if the measure doesn't pass, is what we will lose forever if OHS cannot afford the staff to gather the boxes in our offices, attics and basements. The stuff that will disappear and with them irreplaceable parts of our history. I'm talking about correspondence of our politicians and corporations, our photographs, our letters and diaries.
OHS is too important to our heritage to let it whither.
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There are many reasons to vote YES on 26-118 to save the Oregon Historical Society. I’d like to offer 8,000 of them ... that’s the number of kids who visited the Museum & Library this last year. In spite of the fact that kids these days are wowed by video, iPods, Google, and all things electronic, they still are curious about and excited by seeing “real” things.
Kids love to know that they are looking at and touching objects that real people actually created, lived with, and used. Like the 9,000 year old sandals, the embroidered shoes that are 2 inches long and were worn by an adult Chinese woman whose feet had been bound, a 100 year old canoe that native people used on the Columbia, a basket woven tightly enough to carry water, and the first pulpit from the great African American Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church.
Were it not for the Oregon Historical Society Library school kids would lose a rich opportunity to conduct research using actual documents, maps, and photos. These resources exist no where else in the state. At the OHS Library kids do their homework, look up information about their families and neighborhoods, compete in the National History Day, and prepare historical displays for their schools.
When this measure passes all school groups will get free admission. This will go a long way to helping schools fund field trips and to enabling even more kids to experience this great place.
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On Free Admission.
I agee that kids ought to get in free, but I would like to train them into the idea that someone paid for the whole thing, in this case through our taxes. So in order to help train kids into the idea of being participating and contributing citizens of Oregon and even the US and the rest of the world, I suggest that a cash box fund be established wherein as the kids go through the line to get in, just before they reach the admission taker, the kid is handed whatever is a normal admission, a dollar, a quarter, etc, and they are previously instructed that the taxpayers paid this for their admission fee and then the kid hands that money to the admission fee taker who thanks them for their contribution to the Historical Society, or whatever else we citizens pay our taxes to provide.
I can even imagine that process for little public school kindergarten kids and even into a few lower elenentary grades in order to get those kids trained into being good citizens.
The kids still get in free and we just add a process that helps teach them where that money came from, that somebody paid the cost. In reality pretty much nothing is free and kids ought to learn that and start learning to be their brothers keeper from early on in life.
You could even do variations, like have each kid say that they are paying for the next person in line after them. Or is paying for the kid in the line before them, the one kid who actually got in free because they could not afford the fee, and you could rotate the "first kid" part through the class so that each kid gets that experience of others helping him/her out.
You could even have an actual taxpayer, volunteer to represent all taxpayers and be the one who hands each kid that dollar to pay the Historical Society admission. Rotate through a carpenter in his work rig, a banker in her suit, a scientist in her garb, a policeman in his uniform, etc, eventually representing everyone who pays taxes to support those kids and the OHS. The OHS would hand that taxpayer rep the number of dollars equal to the number of kids in the class just beforehand and he/she would hand them out to each kid. The tax rep citizen could say words something like, "Here, I paid my taxes for this for you to get in and have fun learning" and then hand the kid the dollar.
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I like that idea Tom... maybe extend it to an "adopt a taxpayer" theme like we do with overseas troops... have each student write a thank you note to a taxpayer... sure would make me feel less like I'm pouring my earnings into a black hole... could even extend the idea to all receiving entitlements :-)
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Rethomas.
Thanks.
Heck, for that matter, wouldn't it be wonderful if all those investment bankers who got "bailed out" wrote all of us US taxpayers an apology and a thank you note? Maybe if we train them early enough, the next generation of bankers would have at least a little bit of gratitude for what we do for them.
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Heck, for that matter, wouldn't it be wonderful if all those investment bankers who got "bailed out" wrote all of us US taxpayers an apology and a thank you note? -- Tom D Ford — Mon Oct. 25th 11:49a.m.
That's a great idea, but somehow I see that being twisted into the bankers who nearly brought down the economy asking US, the Taxpayers who bailed them out, for an apology in the fashion of Virginia Thomas who asked Anita Hill for an apology, or Dick Cheney asking Harry Whittington for an apology for getting in the way of his shotgun.
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To be sure, local residents will get great benefit from passage of 26-118. The Oregon Historical Society is a local, state and national treasure that cannot be replaced. In addition to keeping the history museum open to the public, the levy restores library hours to 32+ per week. It also provides free admission anytime to Multnomah County residents and for all school groups. Currently, over 8,000 schoolchildren visit the history museum yearly to learn and touch Oregon’s history, and more will come if admission is free. As a parent of two small children who face continual cuts in their education, I’m thrilled that they may have this benefit. For just $10 a year for the average property owner, we can all protect Oregon’s legacy for the future.
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The Oregon Historical Society is irreplaceable. As an earlier commenter has pointed out, if it must close, there will no longer be an institution in the state that is intended for “public consumption” that is interested in collecting the papers and other records of individuals and businesses across the state. Yes, the state universities have special collections; but they are not intended for use by the general public and they are not repositories of the objects that bring history to life for the thousands of school children who visit OHS each year. Nor can they provide the sort of support for teachers in the classroom that OHS’s on-line interactive Oregon History Project and Traveling Trunk program can.
If these programs and places have to be shut down, Oregon’s young citizens will lose the opportunity to understand their heritage better—or, I fear, at all. And so will their elders, who visit the museum or library (including both a great collection of manuscripts from all the years of Oregon’s rich history and an equally wonderful photograph collection) and who read the Oregon Historical Quarterly, published by the Society and including much material based on the Society’s manuscripts and photographs.
I live 50 miles east of Oregon, in Boise, Idaho. I am retired from the Idaho State Historical Society, and I have done research and selected photographs for its journal at the OHS; Idaho’s history is closely linked to Oregon’s, after all. I have the greatest respect for the OHS staff, who have done so much over the years to make possible the OHS’s programs, and the state will be the poorer if it loses access to their expertise and knowledge. -
Most states support a state history museum, research material and a historical archive as part of a state agency. Oregon, true to its pioneering ways, struck out on a different path in 1899. In that year the Oregon Legislature began partial funding of the Oregon Historical Society as a unique public/private partnership. From 1899 to 2003 that partnership flourished. It produced one of the finest research libraries in the nation, a 100,000 s.f. state of the art storage facility with millions of documents and artifacts, and a wonderful history museum where Oregon school children could view the Oregon story in person.
These world class achievments came at a fraction of the public expense that other states spend. For every dollar of public funding, OHS has generally raised two dollars of private funds. On a per capita basis other states spend much more than Oregon.
- Washington = 6 times Oregon
- Idaho = 20
- West Virginia = 46
The State of Oregon eliminated OHS funding for the 2003-05 biennium. During that recessionary period OHS would go without public funding in the 2005-2007 biennium as well. Partial funding was restored in the 2007-2011 bienniums. During this eight year period the OHS Board and staff have tried many things to fill the void left by the lack of public funding.
- Large exhibits like the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial that attracted standing room only crowds to the museum.
- Private fund raising initiatives that resulted in significant private donations.
- Expense reductions that included suspending programs such as the OHS Press, oral history, folk life, reduced library hours and a 50% reduction in staffing.
No amount of creative thinking or financial magic could find a complete solution to the loss of public funding. During this time OHS exhausted the financial reserves it had taken over 100 years to build.
Every year OHS has an audit performed by an independent CPA firm. The results of these audits show both strong financial controls and planning. What the planning consistently reveals, however, is it is not possible to completely privatize what is essentially a public function.
The levy on the ballot was not the first choice for restoring the public /private partnership that has served Oregon for over 100 years. However, it has become that last option. If the levy is not successful, OHS will exhaust the remainder of its financial reserves and begin a phased shut down. The artifacts and documents that show the rich Oregon history will go dark for future generations.
Please support the OHS levy and ensure that the promise of a better future at the end of the Oregon Trail continues.
Marc Berg
OHS Treasurer
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Marc:
Being audited by a CPA firm simply tells us that no one is engaged in fraud. It does not indicate that the Society is being properly managed. That's my issue.
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I am writing as a docent at OHS with four years experience. Most of my volunteer time has been supporting its educational activities in the museum for schoolchildren. I have led hundreds of schoolchildren through museum tours.
I am proud to be part of an educational effort at the museum, supported by volunteers but led by the OHS staff, that is not only inspired in its content but in its broad reach. Let me cite an example. Eighteen months ago, OHS initiated an effort to reach out to Title One schools in the metro area (mainly Multnomah County but some overlap into adjoining counties). 120 schools were contacted in the past year, inviting them to send classrooms to OHS to tour the permanent exhibit, Oregon My Oregon, depicting the history of the state. The tour content is a match for state curriculum requirements for certain age groups (especially 4th and 8th grade, but flexibly accomodating other age groups as well). 40 schools answered the outreach affirmatively, sending one or more classes to tour OHS. Most of the students (because I asked them every time), had never been to a museum before. When I see their eyes light up with the experience of seeing primary source materials (the real thing) that explorers, traders, missionaries, and pioneers brought with them, the importance of conveying an understanding of Oregon's 9000+ year old history, and OHS's role in that process becomes quite clear.
The outreach effort to Title One schools will continue and will be expanded to other schools, senior citizen, professional, and civic groups, with most of the outreach by volunteers. OHS management has wisely managed its scarce resources to reach out to the broadest sector of the community to help them experience this Oregon treasure. I would like to see that continue.
Bill Nelson
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The burning of the Library of Alexandria is one of the worst tragedies in history.
I suggest that anyone learn about what was stored there and how it was acquired and consider what was lost, before you vote against the Oregon Historical Society. And I suggest that everything that the OHS holds and that every local Historical Society (Deschutes Cnty for me) holds be preserved in some form of duplicate or triplicate somewhere else in case of any sort of tragedy.
If we refuse to learn from history we condemn ourselves to repeating the disasters of the past. And further, we expose ourselves to the whims of the horrible people who would rewrite history to suit their own political views and oppress The People, Conservatives.
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Why should one county bail out a grossly overpaid paid staff and poorly run statewide organization? Oregon will not lose it's history with the defeat of this levy proposal. What Oregon needs to lose is the staff and board or directors that ran its museum into the ground.
I firmly believe that once the current management is dispatched, good minded people throughout the state will find a way to collect and maintain Oregon's history in a sound and prudent manner.
Ann
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Could you clarify why you think that the organization is "poorly run" and the staff "grossly overpaid"? Sources would be helpful. Did I miss some important facts?
Steve
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Steve:
Read yesterday's Oregonian for a taste. As for the "poorly run," spend a little time at the museum. It is a disaster.
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Wiggly:
My reading of the Oregonian article doesn't seem to raise either of these management questions, unless the Director's salary is seen as an example of "grossly overpaid", which at $164k it does not seem to be. Are there other citations?
In my recent time there, I would say the museum is reflecting the significant stresses it is experiencing, but to the extent that it is not truly a disaster (due to the Legislature not honoring its century-old funding commitment) is, I believe, a testament to it being anything but "poorly run".
Steve
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I am surprised at the number of insiders posting in support of the Oregon Historical Society. As a businessman, I am a supporter and user of OHS. I contribute - out of my own pocket - at the $250/year level to the museum. That said, I hardly ever set foot inside - the exhibits are poorly put together, the museum is user-unfriendly, and the staff is poorly informed.
Mr. Vogt has mismanaged the institution since his arrival. He is paid more than the governor ($165,000 per year). He has failed to make required cuts, negotiated poorly, and let's face it - missed the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial completely.
Let's look at the rhetoric - if we shutter OHS, this stuff isn't just going to end up on eBay - it is going to go to one of the state universities (which is where much of it belongs). Further, OHS is still (a) making some money and (b) getting money from the state.
Picking the pockets of Multnomah County residents is not the way to go. If this measure does pass, OHS can kiss my $250 a year goodbye. How many other wealthy Multnomah County residents will feel the same way.
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I'm not sure that I qualify as an insider, but I do have a vested interest in keeping OHS open. My students at Portland State often use the archives to do research and I personally am dependent on OHS to do my research. The Oregon Historical Quarterly is the only peer-reviewed Oregon-specific journal in the country and it is my first choice for publishing articles. If OHS closes, I am one of the non-OHS employees who takes a direct hit on many fronts. I know it's not popular to say so, but historians are also "hard-working stiffs," and that's why we are doing everything we can to keep OHS open.
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The support OHS is getting from the state is down 78%, with an expected allocation of zero in the next biennium, so unfortunately, no, it's not going to be getting money from the state.
As for ending up at a state university -- it won't go to any of them, it will go under lock and key. State universities don't have the desire, money, facilities or expertise to house the literally millions of artifacts, books, photographs, newspapers, personal papers, etc., that OHS does. It takes an entirely distinct institution to do what OHS does.
And Mr. Vogt made a tremendous number of cuts before coming to the voters -- including 1/2 of the staff. Figuring out other ways of getting public support is now the only responsible way for OHS to stay alive.
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When time or money is not unlimited, we have to make acute decisions reguarding what is a necessary and what is a luxury. Economics is the science of saying no.
There are strident calls for saving the OHS. But where should the funding come from? We all want to fund light rail and mass transit, clean energy solar and windmill subsidies, farmer markets, small business loans, advance research for microtechnology and genetics, health care for the elderly, scholarships for merit scholars, food for pregnant women, headstart education for kindergardeners, cancer research, war on poverty, aid for the homeless, or a new lunar program. But in the worst budget crisis in a generation, many things will have to sacrificed.
Would we spend money on archiving the past or prenatal nutrition for mothers for the future generation? Tough questions with no easy answers. But people must come before objects.
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That's an interesting perspective, however, it is important to point out that the Oregon State Legislature continued to fund the Oregon Historical Society even during the Great Depression. While this might be a serious recession, it does not rival the Great Depression.
Also, the choice that you present between history and pre-natal nutrition is a non sequitur. Pre-natal care is available on the federal and private level and is not in danger of being de-funded (widely available through Planned Parenthood, Medicare, WIC, Oregon Health Plan, etc.). A better comparison would be the Oregon Zoo, which received $125 million in local tax dollars in 2008 for a new polar bear compound and an elephant house. Is a zoo more important than Oregon history? I can see zoo animals everywhere, but I can't read Judge Mercedes Deiz's oral history interview anywhere other than at the Oregon Historical Society.
Come to think of it, most of the examples you give are irrelevant as they are primarily funded at the federal level. The Oregon Historical Society is primarily funded at the state level and is important at a state level.
And by the way, I'm not an object, and neither are the other people who rely on OHS.
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Last Friday I met at the OHS research library with library staff and two descedants of prominent Oregon woman suffrgist Abigail Scott Duniway. While it was a delight to see Abigail's 10 year-old namesake read some of her great, great, great, great, great grandmother's writings about the importance of women's right to vote, there are larger lessons to be learned from those documents we reviewed.
The fact that women didn't always have the right to vote is an important aspect of Oregon and U.S. history. The centennial of women's getting the vote in Oregon will happen in 2012. This anniversary gives us a unique opportunity to discuss and highlight the value women and men put on being able to fully participate in our democracy, as well as to make their history well known. That can't happen without the materials held by institutions like OHS.
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how can NARAL Pro-Choice be supporting both candidates? Can Collymore explain this?
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I just voted against the TriMet bond. Why? Because of all the money they've wasted over the years on light rail. If they had not done that, we could've had one of the best bus systems in the world.
But ... noooooo! They didn't spend the money on buses, they spent it on light rail, a primitive technology whose origin was the time before there were paved roads. Buses can go anywhere. Truck breaks down in bus lane, bus drives around it. Try that with light rail.
Express buses used to come into downtown from all over Washington County. Once Westside Max went in, they changed the bus routes to go to Max instead. So now all those people have to make a transfer. More Expensive! Less Efficient! You'll LOVE It!!!
Rail-based vechicles are incredibly expensive compared to buses. So why did TriMet get so heavily into light rail? FASHION! Buses just aren't sexy. You can't host a convention called "Bus-volution."
As long as TriMet's in thrall to the trendy vision of light rail, I'm not sending them my money.
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I never thought I'd be saying this, because I love Oregon history and I'm a bleeding heart liberal who votes Yes for everything if it's for the common good--but why Multnomah County? I think it's crucial to save the Oregon Historical Society, but if this is a metropolitan resource, why aren't Washington and Clackamas counties chipping in? Or what about applying for federal funding, since Oregon Trail history is of national importance?
I moved to Oregon just as the state voted in the property tax rollback, which started the downslide in public service funding. I always wondered why this hurt the state, since everyone I know has much higher property taxes as a result of the "rollback." Although I support the idea of wealthier counties supporting poorer counties for equity across the state, it doesn't seem right that my taxes are $1000 to $2000 higher than my neighbors across the county line who can send their kids to much better schools. And in this case, it's more than unfair--for only one county to pay for a statewide resource is ridiculous. You can't even call this a progressive tax. We're already asked to pile on lots of levies in Multnomah County, all of which I have supported. I just can't support this, as much as I really want to. As important as this is, the OHS needs to come up with some better way of funding this.
By the way, I am not wealthy--I'm a single mom who earned close to poverty level for the last several years, thanks to the economy. However, my property taxes are nearly as high as my mortgage payments. By the time my mortgage term ends, I will have spent so much on property taxes that I could have paid off my loan twice over with that same amount of money.
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Everyone at OHS completely agrees with you on this -- the State of Oregon needs to renew its commitment to OHS. There is no argument there....
Measure 26-118 buys OHS some breathing room to work with the state so that it renews its commitment. The reason the measure isn't tri-county or even statewide is that, in the face of continuing state cuts, there was no time to mount such a big campaign -- OHS is in danger of closing facilities in a few short months.
That said, there are some good reasons why Multnomah County is being approached -- it's one of two counties that doesn't have its own historical society -- OHS serves in that capacity, with over 60% of the holdings related to Multnomah County. Second, the vast majority of the users come from Multnomah County.
You will get a great benefit as a resident and a mom if this passes -- you will get free admission, as will any of your children's school groups. It's a way of OHS saying thank you for the breathing room.
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Comments are now closed.
I understand the significance of OHS and would like it to be supported, but I'm squeezed by long-term unemployment and rising prices. If OHS can't support itself with its current patronage then perhaps its business model is not sustainable. Those who use OHS regularly can provide more support. I've never been to OHS or used it services directly. Oregon history is a luxury and it exists at a lower priority on my budget than food, health, transportation and housing.
I use Trimet once every 10 years. I use Max once or twice a year. I realize many in Portland rely on Trimet and Max to get to work. In theory Trimet provides societal good, but Trimet's costs continue to rise as they cut service. What is being done to address shortcomings in Trimet's business model?
My cell phone and electric bills contain subsidies for the rural and poor. Over the last decade I've supported approximately 10 organizations with small donations. But I've reached a point where self perpetuation outweighs my desire to support society. Can't spend dollars I don't have as much as that stinks.
I want Multnomah County commisioners to be honest, ethical and wise. I want them to be resistant to special interests and corruption. I want them to do what is in the best interest of the majority of the county's residents. I want them to openly and honestly consult with their constituents using the best democratic practices.