It has been said here and elsewhere – in this race in particular, each candidate would make an excellent elected official. We hope none retires from politics anytime soon.
We've asked every candidate the same four questions; only Gary Hansen did not submit his questionnaire. But to hear his and every candidate in the race's basic platform, listen to the podcast of The Skanner News and KBOO Community Radio Live Candidate Forum, which aired April 21, here: http://kboo.fm/node/20966

Loretta Smith

What are your top three priorities if you are elected?
I want to continue to help real people with real problems, so I will focus on protecting our kids, being a champion for seniors, and supporting small business growth.
What special experience do you bring to this office?
As a single mother, I raised my family in Northeast Portland. As the Multnomah County Field Representative for U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, I have built my career around public service and helping my community. It has been a rewarding 20 years of working with leaders at all levels of government to develop public policies that solve real problems for real people. I have helped seniors out of the foreclosure crisis, I have assisted families with affordable housing issues, I have helped to secure federal dollars for after school programs in the community, and I understand how important these issues are to the people in Multnomah County and our state. Now I want to make my experience and relationships work for Multnomah County on a local level.
Give a concrete example of how you would allocate scarce budget resources for the maximum benefit of your constituency. I would like to concentrate resources on the delivery of core services in human services, public health, mental health, and public safety services. I would also pursue federal funds to pay for school based health centers in the county to help offset our budget.
What do you see as the top two issues facing the African and African American communities in the Portland metro area and what will you do to address those issues? I believe that they are inter-related: the lack of living wage jobs for many in the African American community causes many in the African American community to have no access to physical and mental health care services.
I believe we can address this issue through education and training. As a member of the county commission, I will work to expand the SUN programs in the high schools throughout Multnomah County. Using the SUN program as one of many tools to impact unemployment in the African American community will allow individuals who are unemployed and underemployed access to training in their communities through the adult education component of the SUN program.

Karol Collymore

What are your top three priorities if you are elected?
My top three priorities if I am elected are:
Focusing on health disparities and preventative health care in North and Northeast Portland
Bridging the gap between county jails and mental health by focusing on corrections health
Adding community values like health care, pension and sick leave to our contracts with companies and non-profits
What special experience do you bring to this office?
Working with then-Commissioner Jeff Cogen for the past three years, I've learned the value of collaboration, the need to build consensus on tough issues, and above all the need to take the lead on issues that matter in District Two. I've led projects including laying the groundwork for a library in Kenton that opened on March 8, 2010, working with the City of Portland to open the Gateway Center for Domestic Violence Services in spring 2010, and helping to start a farmer's market in St. Johns that opened summer 2009. I am the only candidate who has direct experience working with the current Board of Commissioners and am familiar with the pressing concerns in Multnomah County. While I work collaboratively, I am independent-minded and not easily swayed.
Previous to my work at the County, I worked with the American Heart Association, NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon and Basic Rights Oregon.
Give a concrete example of how you would allocate scarce budget resources for the maximum benefit of your constituency.
Health care, human services, animal services, public safety, libraries, bridges – these are all core services that work together so the County can function. If we cut libraries, thousands of people who would otherwise not have access to computers and books are left without options as well.
The question is not what to cut and what to save; it's how to we share the burden across departments so we can maintain all functions.
This year's budget is looking towards an $11 million dollar cut. We should focus on protecting funding for the thirteen school-based health clinics, Sun Schools and health clinics throughout the County.
What do you see as the top two issues facing the African and African American communities in the Portland metro area and what will you do to address those issues?
First, we need to address the disparity in health outcomes for our community. Rates of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes are disproportionately high in the African American community versus the Caucasian community. The Health Department has acknowledged this disparity and does important preventative care through it's chronic disease program – there is work focused in North Portland – and will continue to address this with their recently acquired grant from the Centers for Disease Control focused on preventive care. I was part of this work during my time working in District Two and it will continue to be my focus if I'm elected.
Second, access to living wage jobs and reasonable contracts for African American owned businesses. I want to pass a community value contracting policy so the County will support companies and non-profits that provide living wages, health care and sick leave. I also would like to see contracts offered in smaller sizes so that more women and minority owned businesses have an opportunity to bid on them.

Chuck Currie

What are your top three priorities if you are elected?
People deserve access to good jobs, quality primary and mental health care, affordable housing, a clean environment, safe communities and a fair and sustainable tax system. These are times of uncertainty. Unemployment is high. Multnomah County needs leaders willing to make difficult decisions regarding budgets so that we are fiscally responsible while providing critically needed services.
What special experience to you bring to this office?
Multnomah County is where the issues I'm most concerned with are debated. The county runs human service and health care programs, provides support for public education, and helps secure the public safety of the community. These are the issues I've passionately worked on my entire adult life. And, I've spent the last 25 years building powerful partnerships with non-profits, religious organizations, businesses and local government to address these issues and make our county a better place. We are fortunate that this election includes a number of good candidates. None of them, however, offer the range or depth of experience I have with both government and the non-profit sector. I'm running to leave Multnomah County a better place for the next generation. It is my goal to see schools in Multnomah County setting the standard for education, not merely measuring up to it. The county can have an impact on school success by supporting SUN schools and school based health centers.
Give a concrete example of how you would allocate scarce budget resources for the maximum benefit of your constituency.
As a Multnomah County Commissioner, I know the county will face difficult decisions regarding the budget. In fact, the county has been forced to cut the budget for the last ten years. My top priority will be to protect programs that the most vulnerable need - particularly children and the elderly. At the same time, we cannot be satisfied with that status quo. I'll be looking for ways to increase revenue in responsible ways. If you believe people deserve access to good jobs, quality primary and mental health care, affordable housing, a clean environment, safe communities and a fair and sustainable tax system, then please support me in my run for Multnomah County Commissioner. We need leaders willing to fight for the common good.
What do you see as the top two issues facing the African and African American communities in the Portland metro area and what will you do to address those issues?
Communities of color are more likely to live in poverty, go without health care and face unequal educational opportunities for children. These are the very same issues that I have spent my adult life working on. As a minister in the United Church of Christ - "a united and uniting, multiracial and multicultural, accessible to all, open and affirming, and peace with justice church" - I've made racial justice a focus of my ministry. I've been a long-time critic, for example, of the lack of leadership in the Portland Police Bureau and was one of the few white clergy to stand alongside my colleague The Rev. Jesse Jackson and leaders of the AMA in the wake of the death of Aaron Campbell. As a Multnomah County Commissioner, I'll continue my work on these same issues.

Paul Van Orden

What are your top three priorities if you are elected?

Stabilizing the local economy, with a focus on creating living wage jobs in sustainable industries.
Safeguarding the county's core health, rehabilitation, and education services.
Reforming the leadership of the Sheriff's office.
What special experience to you bring to this office?
I bring the widest experience working with county and city agencies on the issues at the heart of county services. In my 14 years as an environmental law officer in Portland I have worked with every city agency, most county agencies, each neighborhood association in the district, and most of the business associations.
The people who drive our community aren't just elected officials and political insiders. As a long time public servant I have earned a reputation for resolving difficult community livability challenges which impact both neighbors and small businesses, in a way that creates win-win solutions.
Chair Wheeler has started to make positive changes to the Sheriff's office. As Commissioner I will be a champion to continue this work.
With 20 years in Environmental Law Enforcement, I am the only candidate with the experience and practical insight to develop a system that works.
Give a concrete example of how you would allocate scarce budget resources for the maximum benefit of your constituency.
The county cannot afford to continue maintaining fiscal oversight of our regional bridges. Through collaboration with our regional partners including the City of Portland, Metro, and the State of Oregon we can move bridge oversight to an agency with the funding and capability needed to maintain this vital infrastructure. As Commissioners we need to focus on safeguarding the county's core
functions: health services; community school programs, such as Schools Uniting Neighborhoods; and effective criminal justice and rehabilitative correctional programs.
What do you see as the top two issues facing the African and African American communities in the Portland metro area and what will you do to address those issues?
As a resident in the district for 13 years, I have seen how rapid gentrification and increasing rents have impacted working class families on every level. Forced to choose between affordable housing or healthy food, long time residents have been pushed out to East County and Vancouver.
Social services face budget shortfalls and another round of cuts, leaving families with limited options.
Stabilizing the local economy and creating living wage jobs will alleviate the burden on taxpayers, while empowering families in North and Northeast Portland.

Maria Rubio

What are your top three priorities if you are elected?
Equity and Social Justice: Economic equity, promoting living wage jobs, access to healthcare, and environmental justice. I will focus on preparing our future workforce, which will be increasingly represented by people of color. Lastly I will focus on the overrepresentation of children and youth of color in the foster-care and criminal justice system by partnering with the state and non-profits to leverage resources with the Multnomah County Commission of Youth, Children, and Families.
Public Safety: Bringing the city and county together to create trust in our public safety system by promoting community-centered approaches, accountability, and equity. I will work to ensure that the safety net for those in crisis is adequate at the front end so they don't result in police response, but rather in an appropriate mental health response.
Collaborative Governance: I will work to make government more effective by working with other elected officials and decision-makers to work together to solve problems and make decisions across jurisdictional lines to successfully promote and implement mutual initiatives to make sure decisions are not made in isolation that affect our mutual constituents.
What special experience do you bring to this office?
I am the most qualified candidate for this job because of my broad experience government. I have lived in the Portland area since 1969 and have spent 30 years in public service. I have served in government at the federal, state, county, and city levels and know how public policies impact our lives and those of the most vulnerable in our society.
I have worked in direct service with victims, the unemployed, seniors and people with disabilities, offenders, and people with mental illness throughout my career. I have worked at the policy level for nine years at the US Department of Justice in Washington, DC and for City of Portland Mayor's Office to implement organizational and systems changes to improve accountability, improve public safety, and to solve problems by addressing the root causes instead of the symptoms. I am familiar with the federal, state, and city budget processes and helped monitor the Portland Police Bureau's $120M budget as the Mayor's Public Safety Policy Director.
I created, implemented, and monitored intergovernmental agreements between the city and county to fund vital services that affected the work of the Portland Police Bureau. At the Mayor's direction, I established the Office of Youth Violence Prevention, and increased funding and responsibility of the Portland Office of Emergency Management.
I administered the evaluation of the Independent Police Review (IPR) process that resulted in recommendations to improve response to complaints, make the process more transparent, and to increase the citizen review committee's authority.
I have administrative and management experience and have been Executive Director of a training institute overseeing $1M plus budgets. At the federal level, I have developed and implemented national grant programs and monitored multi-million dollar budgets.
I have a collaborative style of leadership and have experience bringing partners together to look t issues from a systems approach to solve problems.
Lastly, my five-year experience in Washington DC provided me the opportunity to develop grant programs, fund municipalities, universities, non-profits, and police agencies to develop community-oriented government best practices. I have a grasp on federal funding and how to access it and monitored congressional earmarks.
Give a concrete example of how you would allocate scarce budget resources for the maximum benefit of your constituency.
I would prioritize services to the most vulnerable including public health, senior and disabled services, mental health, and pubic safety. Because public safety is the largest part of the general fund budget, I would look for ways to be more efficient and effective by coordinating or consolidating several operations that are duplicated by both the city and county. I would implement some of the recommendations made in the Public Safety Systems Collaborative study funded by the city and county in 2006.
I will also promote tax reform at the state level.
What do you see as the top two issues facing the African and African American communities in the Portland metro area and what will you do to address those issues?
Economic Equity is one of the top issues facing the African and African American communities in the Portland metro area. Even before the economic downturn, these communities were affected by poverty, lack of living wage jobs, and access to affordable housing. As a result people have had to move to areas where they are met with unease, racism, fear, and lack of "cultural community". Fear on the part of the communities they are relocating to, often results in misunderstanding, stereotyping, and violence.
I will work to address poverty by promoting living wage jobs through training, skill development, and education, to increase county support services, and promote home-buying opportunities.
Access to a good education is part of economic equity. The high percentage of African Americans not completing high school is a definite barrier to economic prosperity. I will work to sustain the SUN Schools program as one part of the solution to support families and student success.
The breakdown of community trust in authority: For too long communities of color and in particular African-Americans and Latinos have attempted to partner with elected officials and the police to build and sustain trust. Recent use-of-force incidents involving persons in crisis have breached the trust that did exist. When the community feels fears those who are charged with serving them, an emergency exists. Many of these incidents involve persons with mental illness and/or in crisis.
As Commissioner, I will utilize my skills, knowledge, and experience to work on and improve the nexus of mental health/people of color, and public safety.

Tom Markgraf

What are your top three priorities if you are elected?
The economy, infrastructure and people who suffer by no fault of their own. This includes the mentally ill, the homeless, and people who suffer from domestic violence.
In this region, nearly 40 percent of people who work with their hands, building and repairing things like roads and bridges, are unemployed.
We have an opportunity to put those people to work replacing crumbling infrastructure with sustainable practices and in ways that are environmentally friendly. Transit like streetcars will employ more construction workers and provide more transportation choices in a region that continues to grow with more people and congestion.
We need to replace the Columbia River I-5 Bridge and replace it with one that includes seismic safety, bike and pedestrian opportunities, and a great light rail extension. The current bridge does not work. And it results in pollution spewing out of cars and trucks stuck in traffic to the community surrounding I-5. This is wrong, causes asthma and hurts all people.
I will use the bully pulpit to address the need to get these bridges repaired and put people to work.
What special experience to you bring to this office?
I have a solid track record of serving my community and would bring this experience and expertise to the Multnomah County Commission.
I am the only candidate with experience overseeing a major mental health service. I was on the board and was board chair of Mental Health Services West, the largest mental health provider in Oregon. We were Multnomah County's mental healthcare provider.
I was the project manager to build the homeless shelter in Old Town for Transition Projects.
My professional life has been getting community support and funding for regional transportation projects including: state road and bridge funding at the Oregon State Legislature, senior and disabled transportation, Interstate Max, and Airport Max. For interstate Max, we had the highest minority participation rate in Oregon's history for a public works project.
I worked for Congressman Blumenauer getting federal support for Oregon projects and know what it takes at the local and federal levels to get stuff done. I will get the Sellwood Bridge completed; I will work with the city and state to fix the I-5 mess; and I am committed to get the rest of the region's infrastructure on sure footing.
Give a concrete example of how you would allocate scarce budget resources for the maximum benefit of your constituency.
The County is in a perfect storm regarding revenue and expenditures: during a failing economy the funding falls in nearly direct proportion to rising need for services for people out of work.
We are talking about people from the middle class who no longer have a paycheck, but now need medical care; kids who need inoculations and other health services; and a growing body of people who need food assistance.
We currently house the mentally ill in the most expensive housing we can: jails and emergency rooms, instead of humane mental-health housing. This needs to change.
It doesn't make sense to have the County providing urban services like a road department for 50 miles of urban roads and 250 miles of rural roads. It doesn't make sense to dispatched deputy sheriffs from 122nd and Glisan to patrol Sauvie Island, Crown Point and Dunthorpe when these services could be turned over to nearby providers.
Kicker reform and tax reform are important to stability and are the long-term means to getting every county balanced.
Ted Wheeler said there is no more fat. Whole programs are going to have to be cut. No one wants to do this, but it is where the County services are headed. It is time to be real about this with the public.
What do you see as the top two issues facing the African and African American communities in the Portland metro area and what will you do to address those issues?
I would represent all residents of District 2. Their safety is of paramount importance.
The community questions whether they are safe with the City's Police Bureau. I would work with the community, hold community forums, and seek to establish a trusting relationship with the police. While on the Board of Mental Health Services West, the Portland police went through a spate of shooting mentally ill people. We instituted a training program to recognize mentally ill people not as threats. The shootings stopped. These shootings point to an area of training that is not happening with the Portland Police.
The second issue is, I believe in jobs for the community. If the I-5 Bridge is build, it will create 27,500 jobs and I would fight using my bully pulpit to hire from the community where the project is located. I worked for this for the Interstate Max construction and it was a huge boon for minority contractors. I would do the same for replacing the I-5 Bridge.