Latest / The Schmidt Show PDX / Pull Up a Chair

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Pull Up a Chair · The Schmidt Show PDX

• 0:00
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• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: A quick word from our show sponsor,
• 0:09
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• 0:13
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• 0:29
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• 0:34
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• 0:38
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• 0:40
  [music]
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Mike Schmidt, former Multnomah DA, currently on the hunt to catch them all.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: Pokemon, that is, with my kids.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, your favorite part-time podcaster.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: Look, on November 3rd, Multnomah County picks up We'll be right back.
• 1:30
  [music]
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: You know that the chair is the CEO of roughly a $4 billion government.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: As Deborah put it,
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: the county does the people stuff, whereas the city does the infrastructure stuff.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: The county runs our homeless service system, We'll see you next time.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: Whoever wins this race not only inherits a job that touches all of our lives,
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: they are also going to inherit a squeezed budget,
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: a city county homeless services agreement that's up for renegotiation and a public
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: that has sometimes run out of patience.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: There are three candidates running Commissioner Julia Brim Edwards,
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: former Commissioner Sharon Myron,
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: and my guest today, Commissioner Shannon Singleton.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: She advised Governor Kate Brown on housing.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: She stepped in as interim director of the Joint Office of Homeless Services.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: And in 2024, voters in North and Northeast Portland elected her to be a county commissioner.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: But here's something about this race most people don't know.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: The District 2C.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: So Shannon can't run for both.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: Her opponents don't necessarily face that choice.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: So to get a shot at being chair, she has to give up the job she has right now.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's either a lot of confidence or a real gamble and maybe a little bit of both.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the show, Shannon Singleton.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Good to be here.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: You're running for county chair.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of a big deal.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: No big deal.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: I want to step back from the race a little bit and just let people get to know who you are.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: So every hero or shero in this case has an origin story, right?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: And every villain too, I suppose.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: But in your case, every hero has an origin story.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: What is that thing, any point in your life that you're like has put you on this path?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: Give us that memory.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think there was probably when my mom,
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: she used to have folks come in and stay in our house.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: And often I was the kid who had to be displaced because she said,
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: you can just come sleep in my room or give in your room to somebody else who's down
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: on their luck.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the time it really stuck for me was when a friend of mine was having
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: a really hard time at home and she had them come in and then she went and talked
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: with their parents.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And there was something about that of like the community takes care of each other
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: that just really stuck with me.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And actually went into school as an accounting major,
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: did a job in accounting and was bored and then took an elective doing social work.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, whoa, this is a career.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is awesome.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: I can get paid to do what to like take care of, like care about people and support them.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm down.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: that's awesome.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that is a good lead in.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: So tell us a little bit about your career trajectory and some of the stories along the way.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I ended up leaving my first school and going to Temple University,
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: and I studied social work there.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: The school I was at,
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: I was there on a soccer scholarship,
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: and they didn't have an accredited social work program,
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: so I had to find a different school.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm grateful to go home, be in Philly, be back around my family.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I got to learn from people who were a part of the civil rights movement.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so my social work education was rooted in power.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And how do you as a professional paid to be in that space really uplift
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: and I joined them in Philly, but people marched much longer than that.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know,
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: us West Coasters and I count myself in that group only though I've only been here
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: for around 20 years at this point, but I grew up as an East Coaster.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: And so if you haven't lived on the East Coast and you've only been a West Coaster,
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: you're like, but wait, states can't be that close together.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: But on the East Coast, they are close.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_02: We're not talking a thousand mile march here, but it is a significant march.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: What is the distance from Philly to New York?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's such a good question and probably the worst one for me.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: I can tell you it took days and we had pit stops along the way so folks could sleep, eat, rest.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: It was about the end goal and not about some sort of exercise.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: Kind of like a hood to coast for civil rights.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, great.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that's a formative part of your career path.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: At some point you made it to Oregon.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I left.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was in Philly and I decided I wanted to see something different.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I had some friends in Talos, New Mexico.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I moved there and...
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Culture shock.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Real small town.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: There was one and a half black people in it.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I started working with survivors of domestic and sexual violence there.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Spent a couple of years when I left that job.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Unsurprisingly, there was one nonprofit in the community because it was so small.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I left and I moved to California.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then what'd you do?
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: In California, I actually left social work.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: I went back to the restaurant world.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's how I had put myself through high school was working in the restaurant.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I have a theory.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody in their life needs to work in a restaurant.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: Agree.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, service industry, you know, restaurants, I think, are high up there.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: I worked in a fast food restaurant and it was a formative business.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think that you have to go through serving other people.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: So A, you learn how to never be that customer.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: And B, that you actually appreciate what goes into the people who are on their feet,
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: running around,
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: making the food,
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: serving the food, busting the dishes, doing all of the things so that we can...
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: Walk in and enjoy it.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: And you can appropriately appreciate that time.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: My dishwashing days were rough.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I had some dishwashing days.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, you know what?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: To be fair, I mean, it's hard work.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: And like I said, you're on your feet and everything.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: I was a young person when I was doing this.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, I wasn't as much of a tax on my physical being, but it was so much fun.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I mean,
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: the stories I had from being at Arby's,
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: which is the fast food restaurant I worked at in upstate New York.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: But I also washed dishes in a different restaurant that was the fancy restaurant in town.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: We had a fancy restaurant in town where everyone went for prom, right?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: I was the dishwasher there for a time period.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just like you're in the trenches together.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, the camaraderie is cool.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: You get to eat there.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: And then my family.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Usually something that's not on the menu.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: You're like, OK, how do I make this?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: Arby's had a whole like off menu thing that we did.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: And then one of my favorite parts was the informal service industry economy.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: Where your friend comes in and you hook them up and then you go to their restaurant
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: and they hook you up.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then once you're old enough,
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: the bar that stays open for the service industry and then you get to hang out
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: with all the restaurant workers.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's also very fun.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody should have that experience in their life.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: So you did that in California.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: What comes next?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Then I moved up to Northern California,
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: where I worked with young people in a group home setting.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Initially, they were about 13 to 18, those who were becoming 18 and aging out of the system.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where I really saw like, whoa, this is...
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: And good luck paying rent.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: We never let you have a job.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's really challenging.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: So it taught me a lot.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: And really for me, it was where I think it solidified the system being really a problem, right?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: We don't set people up for success.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Then I moved here to Portland in 2007.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: And my first job, I actually had two.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: One was I worked 12-hour shifts on the weekends at the Safe Shelter,
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: which was the first low-barrier shelter in Portland.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then I worked part-time as a caterer at Lewis & Clark.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, nice.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: Well, maybe did you cater at the law school?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: I did not.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: I catered a lot of fancy parties up there.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't invited to fancy parties.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: I was just getting lunch in the cafeteria in 2007.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, we were close to each other.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, we were.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: Well, tell me,
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: in that kind of story of your career path,
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: you have been in various roles,
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_02: but very in touch with kind of what I would describe as people on the front lines
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: and been like a frontline worker serving people,
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: making sure that people who are vulnerable don't fall through the cracks and things.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: Tell us a story from your time that like really sticks with you from those experiences.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: one that really sticks with me is a woman that was in shelter at the safe shelter
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: for, gosh, I want to say almost three years she was there.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I kept telling my contract manager because he would say,
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: you have a time limit in your contract.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I said,
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: you come put her out because she was so traumatized
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: that she didn't actually even know what her name was.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so it.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: It took years.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And one day, this woman walked in the front door and was looking for her daughter.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And we, of course,
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: couldn't confirm or deny if she was there,
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: invited her to put something on the bulletin board, and it was this woman.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it just stuck with me because Then at least we had a space where I could talk
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: to her and try and get her to allow us to talk with mom so
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: that we could actually figure out what the best next step for her was.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: But the key for me was my job became to fight against the system,
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: frankly,
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: to make sure that she had a safe place to be regardless of the rules that were
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: about how long somebody can stay.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: She wasn't a problem in the shelter.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: She really just couldn't give us any information for us to do anything and move her
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: into the next step.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: Your story really illustrates something that I have come to learn over my career,
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: which is a lot of times,
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: and I understand,
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: and it's inevitable,
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: but there's a tension between Working with an individual and setting policies
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: and rules that are supposed to apply to everybody and apply to people
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: equally.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: And those things are constantly in conflict and there has to be a balance, right?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: You can't do it any other way,
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: but it's been my experience over the years that the more you can put things
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: into our inflexible rules that capture and allow for the exceptions or
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: the discretion or the Thing that can accommodate the individual whose circumstance,
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: they don't fit the cookie cutter mold, right?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of people do fit into the policy buckets that we create.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: But there's always,
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: it doesn't matter where you draw the policy lines,
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: there's always going to be people on the other side of the line that,
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: You wish you could pull in.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: And the more inflexible we are on those policies, the more people get left out.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: That's one of the things that I've learned over the years.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: I'm wondering through your experience,
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: all the way from growing up with your mom and then through
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: the various jobs you've had,
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: what is something that maybe when you set out on this journey,
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: you had a view about homelessness or things that's changed over the years for you?
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's such a good question.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think when I actually started in the field,
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: my first internship was in a shelter in well,
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: right on the other side of Philly in Delco and Delaware County for the everyone
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: at home will know what that means.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: But I have a ton of listeners in Philly.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: So there you go.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you will now.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_02: Perfect.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a clean and sober shelter.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the whole idea was you have to come inside,
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: you have to prove you can be clean, and then you can move into transitional housing.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to prove you can do that.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then we can help you get into permanent housing.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so that kind of stepping stone Yeah,
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's similar to my takeaway over my career is not every path looks
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: the same.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: And having that
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: Ability for discretion in the system is key.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: So we are going to talk more about homelessness and your experience on that
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: because it is going to be or is one of the top things on voters' minds.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: But before we get into that, I want to just step into the race.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: You're already an elected official.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: You're only halfway through your elected term.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Not true.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so I have, I'm feeling the end of Sushila Jay, a Paul's term.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I had two years.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: I had that backwards
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: in my mind.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, exactly.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: Your term.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so you had to make a decision.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_02: Do you run again for your, uh,
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_02: seat that you currently have as the incumbent,
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: uh, you know, potentially even unopposed.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of times incumbents, uh, get that advantage.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't, but you know, I hear about it.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Or run for chair.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: And you chose to run for chair.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: How come?
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: There were a couple of things that happened for me.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: One was, I really had to think about where do I think I can be the most impactful?
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that is as chair.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And not that I haven't gotten a lot of things done as commissioner,
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: and I really have enjoyed this role.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: But frankly,
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: I knew the two other people who were going to be running,
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: and I didn't think that they were the right people to be chair.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought it was important for Somebody to run against them and somebody
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: who really was progressive and not just in words, but in action.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're going to get into that.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: To jump into that race.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it felt really important to me to do that.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I just thought, well, why am I thinking somebody else should do it?
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: It should just be me.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so I made the decision,
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: of course,
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: after talking with my husband,
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: because it's a different role, a lot more strain on the household.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: So he was good with it.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, all right, let's do it.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's crucial.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: I can say,
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_02: having gone through this,
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: that your family has to be on board and they have
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: to understand what they're signing up for.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know that either my wife or I fully understood,
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: and maybe there was no way to understand What I was signing up for.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: But that is crucial because they are going to make sure that you are okay and
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: that they are okay throughout it.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_02: So you made the decision to run and we're going to talk more about some of the specifics.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: But one of the things that you said was that you looked at who else was running
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: and you said, Hey, I know that...
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think they're going to do a great job.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: And so I feel like I need to throw my hat in here.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: We had an episode a few episodes ago.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: I had Debra Cofori on the show and Debra and I, you know, we go way back.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: We were together over the years and she gave us some insights into the position, right?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_02: Someone who has held it for eight years and along with other ones.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: One of the things that she said that really resonated with me is that the person One
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: who is the county chair has to have had serious managerial experience
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: in their career because a lot of the job is of the chair.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's different than commissioner.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: You're more legislative at this point.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: Tell us about your managerial experience and how that distinguishes you.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I have actually been a manager of every job that I've had, even my first job.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: I was a manager at Arby's.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: They made me a manager of a bakery.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'd never baked a thing in my life.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: But it's definitely been something that my first job in social work with working
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: with survivors of sexual and domestic violence,
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: I was the lead of that whole program.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: And what I quickly learned What I learned was there's things
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: that I'm really passionate about and understand, but I'm also a brand new graduate.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I need to hire people who know more than me and who can really run with
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: the particular program that they're in charge of.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And my job is to facilitate them being successful.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that's something that I really it stuck with me in that first job.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I've now brought it into every place I've been at the safe shelter.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: I was the director there running that program.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like my job was to look at the partnerships
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: that would make my case managers more successful.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: At Join, I was the executive director, which was probably one of my favorite jobs.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's such a great organization.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the role there was to really think about how can we do systems work.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: Part of actually written in my contract was to really push the system to do better.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think really as a manager...
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: I've worked with them and said, you're actually better for this other job.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about that.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: And they've been hugely successful there and really impactful.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: So that's something I think is really key and why I keep talking about the chairs,
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: the chief executive.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's a really key part of this job.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just a politician's job.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah,
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: it's a little scary to think of somebody having that position without that kind
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: of high-level managerial experience.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: One of the things that you said that resonates with me and that I've always strived
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: to be as a leader, as a manager, as somebody who is supervising individuals is...
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: And it's easy to say.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's almost cliche and everybody says it.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: So you got to actually see how they perform at it.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_02: But it's that kind of servant leadership mentality.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's that put the right person in the role, but then your job is to.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, that's right.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: Because they're like, oh, I can fix this.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: I am going to now manage you into doing this and I'm going to tell you how to do it.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to tell you what.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: And it ends up as a disaster every time I've seen it.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: I completely agree.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: Something I learned that I've carried with me.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: And this happened at Join where I started saying, well,
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: I have to ask myself,
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: what will it take to do this instead of what are all the barriers
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: to why I can't do it?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: And just that simple flip of a question was something I used
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: in Governor Brown's administration when I worked for her.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: That changed the dynamic because I said to the director,
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: The directors at the state, tell me what it's going to take to get it done.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then it's the governor's job to decide if we have the resources to do it.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then she can get you the resources, then you can implement it.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: But let's not get stuck on the what you can't do.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_02: That is such good insight.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I agree so much.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of times people...
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_02: You know, they have a task in front of them.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_02: They see something that feels insurmountable.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: And they're like, well, I don't have the budget for that.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have the resource for whatever it is, or the law is this way or the policy is that way.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I was always like, I want to know that because, yeah, maybe today.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_02: We got to go change the law, right?
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: But everything is possible.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: And then it's the decision of saying,
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_02: are we going to spend the resource of the capital to navigate those things
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: or is it not worth it?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_02: That's a conversation, but everything is possible.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, that's right.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: That's a good lead.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I wanted to highlight your experience in Salem because I think,
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: and I've talked to Nafisa Fai,
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: who's also running for chair and boy,
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: wouldn't you two make great co-chairs of your two counties.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: I talked to Nafisa and I think one of the strengths that she brings is her relationships.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_02: And as the chief executive of Multnomah County, it is absolutely crucial that you can work.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: So
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_02: talk to us a little bit.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: You've, you've been in the highest levels of government in our state.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: Tell us about that experience.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when I took the job, it was about four months before COVID.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought, oh,
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to get to think big about housing policy and we're going
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: to really do some major things here where we can address the development needs
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: that we have.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: And frankly,
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: it became one where I was like,
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: okay, this is the right spot for me because I do know about crisis services.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: And we had,
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think at one point we had a daily call that was a little bit about kind
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: of what do we need to do?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: What is the current status?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so at one point,
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: the deputy chief of staff for the governor said,
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: can somebody please answer Shannon's question?
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer was, we don't have it.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so I sat down and worked with Multnomah County at that time and said,
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: what are you all doing?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: What's the guidance you're giving?
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: How can we borrow that and bring it to the rest of the state?
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so at that time, you talked about Deborah, there was a specialization.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's been missing.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: It taught me so much about how to be a leader,
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: frankly, especially in really hard times, because remember, it wasn't just COVID.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: We also had floods in Umatilla where a bunch of people lost housing, were displaced.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: We had fires down south.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I remember it wasn't just COVID.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: It was a lot.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you were in the thick of it too.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so what I learned was how to work across the aisle there
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: where we don't really have Republicans and Democrats in the same way locally,
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: but we do with the state.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so finding the places that we can agree to work on legislation.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: And additionally,
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: figuring out how to have conversations about budgets with the folks
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: who were not just on that committee, but the whole legislature.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: During my time there, it was when we got the Rose Quarter compromise done.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: And people were not wanting to put a lot of money into that
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: because it had been fraught for a really long time.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: But that became something that the governor went out and did a tour.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: She said Harriet Tubman Middle School is too close already.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: We'll just we need to find money to move the middle school.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we stood up and did.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was just something that I learned,
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: not just how to be a leader for myself,
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: but also how to work with folks regardless of our political affiliation.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that's something that when I started, I had a job in the legislature.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: I was counsel to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: And that was 2013, so a little while ago.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_02: But it was this golden age of people who could work together across the aisle to achieve a goal.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: There's always partisanship.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's not rose-colored glasses.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: There's always partisanship.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: But the Republicans that we worked with were interested in criminal justice reform,
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: maybe for their own reasons.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: You know,
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: they might come at it from a different angle,
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_02: but they were interested in it and we could work together.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember having some amazing,
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: we got to take a trip to Norway and we went with Republican officials
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_02: and Democrat officials.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_02: They saw it from a different angle, but came away with the same viewpoint.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_02: Fast forward,
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: Donald Trump 1.0 and now 2.0,
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_02: and everything just feels like everything is so partisan and so partisan.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, criminal justice reform, forget about it.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: You can't have that conversation anymore, which is so unfortunate.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: Give us an example of something that you are looking forward to as chair
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: where it's going to take a broader coalition of folks across the party divide
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_02: to make this county work.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think there's a couple of things.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'll talk about HR1 implementation, though.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: The cuts to Medicaid that are coming, it's not something that the county can do by itself.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: So we have to be able to work with our state partners.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it's even just things like, what are the rules around exemptions?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Who qualifies so that we can start...
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Getting people set up to do that.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: I need to know, I don't know how many people will remember before we had Medicaid expansion.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: We actually had a lot of folks uninsured and that was the primary,
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: primarily almost everybody I served in homeless services was uninsured.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the problem was people don't take uninsured patients in a lot of behavioral health care.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was a huge barrier.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want us to go back there.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think people understand how hard it was for folks to get services and treatment.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have to work together.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so frightened about the behavioral health care system and what HR1,
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: which goes into effect in January.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: They timed it to come out after the midterms,
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_02: which hopefully is not going to save them from the electoral fate that they have
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: in front of them for doing these things.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: But it's going to be...
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's going to be hard.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like,
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_02: over my term and tenure and before me too,
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_02: behavioral health has always been a challenge.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: Oregon ranks highly for how many people need behavioral health services.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: Not always as highly for access or actually connecting them.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like we've made some strides through Medicaid expansion
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_02: and it almost feels like a rug pull is coming for us.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: I agree.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's something I've been very worried about.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I think about even so many people I know in my life, it's,
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: could you reapply for something every six months and remember to do that
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: without somebody or some sort of reminders?
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the thing that I think is going to be really hard.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: We'll have some folks who qualify for exemptions.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: We want to make sure that happens.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: But when we did expansion,
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: we had a bunch of staff from the state come in to help us get people
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: on their Medicaid.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not looking like something that's going to happen
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: unless we all come together and work with the state
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: to say this is our priority need.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: When everybody's asking for something different, nobody gets anything.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: So this is when I think we have to really prioritize and make sure
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: that people can get stay on care.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: One of the things when I was running for DA the first time,
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_02: a story that really stuck with me,
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_02: I used to volunteer for this organization called Home PDX.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_02: And the whole goal of Home PDX was just to get out on the street.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_02: We'd get up at like six in the morning,
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_02: get out on the street with some coffee,
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_02: some hot chocolate and have conversations with people as they were starting
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_02: to get their days waking up and meet them wherever that they were.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the goals was to have conversation with people.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: And the leadership of Home PDX would say, look, handing out coffee is great.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: But if you only have hand out one cup of coffee and have an hour long conversation,
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: that's as or more productive than handing out 100 coffees.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember talking to a gentleman who was living in a tent and he asked me,
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: hey, what do you do?
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_02: We're having a conversation.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: And at the time I worked for the state and I said, oh, I work for the state.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I always am vague like that, right?
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_02: And so I said, hey, you know, I work for the state.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_02: And he says, oh, the state.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, you people, you always screw everything up.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, oh, all right.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_02: You're not probably wrong, but tell me what you're thinking about.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_02: And he said that his experience was he finally got signed up for health care.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_02: He got the equipment,
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_02: which for him,
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_02: his chronic condition that actually I think led to him being,
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_02: experiencing homelessness and his inability to work and other things was he needed
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: a bone growth stimulator for recovery.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: Whatever the condition he had was that was really painful.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: And so he finally got one and he was so excited about it.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_02: And he was like, I'm set up here.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_02: I had a place to plug it in.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: I could do my therapy the multiple times a day that I needed to do it.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, it's a super expensive machine.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: And he's like, and then you people came in and swept my tent and threw it in the trash can.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, explain to me how that's helpful.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, so you, on the one hand, give me, and on the other hand, you throw it in the trash.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, so state, tell me.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_02: And you know,
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: that always stuck with me because I'm like, gosh,
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_02: that is just the perfect encapsulation of back to our conversation about policies.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we have a policy where we're going to help get people signed up for Medicaid.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: We're going to get them the healthcare we need.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's really going to be great.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, we have a policy that says if you're not at whatever his situation was,
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_02: we're going to throw all your stuff in the trash.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just like we're at odds.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I figure,
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: as the county chair,
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: you are going to be leading agencies and providing budget
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_02: for some other elected officials who lead agencies who are sometimes
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_02: at cross purposes.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_02: How do you deal with that?
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think for me, it's really I center the people that are most impacted.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so I start with what is happening for the folks
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: who are receiving county services and what are the priority needs that they have?
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then what does frontline staff say and what are the things that are actually working?
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Often I really look to outcomes.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I'm a bit of a data nerd.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: So the outcomes matter to me, but not just the numbers, also the stories like that.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so for me,
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: that's one where at that time,
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: actually,
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: with the state you're talking about,
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: I was at And part of what we did was work with the city of Portland and ODOT
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: to get it so the city of Portland would be doing those camp sweeps instead of ODOT
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: because the city did them a little bit differently.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: And they did store people's belongings.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not going to pretend that sweeps are good,
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: but it was better than the original program that was happening.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so to me, it's how do we mitigate the harm that's happening?
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: But that story to me more even says...
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: I believe everybody deserves to live inside.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: If you only believe that people with disabilities deserve to live inside,
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: then we would focus on housing for them.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it would more than have the population of folks who are experiencing homelessness.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that to me is something that we have to shift that conversation
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: because I think people with disabilities is a little more bipartisan
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: than everybody deserves to live inside.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean I change the fact that I believe everyone deserves to live inside.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: But if I can get you all behind me because we're going to focus on housing for folks
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: on fixed income.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's start there.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you touch on something that I think is also a negative in our politics these days.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_02: The idea of compromise, the idea of not getting 100% of the thing that you are going for.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_02: And you just laid out, hey, if I can get 50%, I'm going to take that W.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm going to continue to work on the other 50%.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not giving up.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's still my value and my vision.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: But if I can grab half the bag,
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to grab half the bag and then I'm going to continue to work for
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_02: the others.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: But I see in our politics,
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_02: left and right,
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_02: this idea of, oh, well, that's settling, that's caving in, that's all these things.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_02: How do you navigate that with your own team,
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_02: for example, the progressives who are like, no, you can't do that.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_02: How do you navigate those politics?
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: I really just talk about the fact that if we have folks behind us on this one part
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: of it, like there's still people that we care about as progressives, right?
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: We still want them to be inside too.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: So if we can get full support there,
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: and then it allows us to focus I really would prefer this system to be that,
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: you know, again, homelessness should be rare, brief, and non-recurring.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't have to keep experiencing it.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_02: So obviously, homelessness and housing is top of mind for our voters.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_02: One of the top issues that has been a challenge for this community.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_02: In fact,
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_02: we had a mayor who's now elected of our city who ran
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_02: on ending unsheltered homelessness in his first year.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to say complete failure.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_02: As far as I know, the numbers have only gotten worse.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe they've stayed similar.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_02: I know there's arguments about numbers, always is.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_02: But I know that when I drove here this morning, I saw people who were unsheltered.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_02: What do we learn from those mistakes and how do we move forward on,
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_02: which is clearly a challenging issue.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_02: Look, I don't fault anybody for taking a big swing.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_02: I think that that's important in trying something.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's okay if we try and fail,
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: but what do we learn from the failure and how do we move forward from here?
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think the big thing was we put a lot of money into the overnight only shelters
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: and very few people in those were actually ended up ending their homelessness.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, it doesn't mean that those programs were important for the folks who got to
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: who were We're able to sleep inside, but it wasn't a part of the larger system.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I think what we learn is, yes,
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: we want folks to have safety,
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: but people are still homeless when they live in shelter.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: And when you fund shelters with one-time only money,
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: then they are going to close And that means they'll be back outside.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: So you're not really changing your unsheltered numbers in the long term.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I think what I hope people learned is we have to think about that full continuum.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: People's homelessness has ended So we have to make sure that we have that pipeline back out.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing I think I hope that people know, and I keep saying these numbers everywhere, but
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: We have 720 apartments in the pipeline to be built in the next two years for people
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: who are at the lowest income, under 30%.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: All are folks on disability, full-time minimum wage workers in this category.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: That is over 36,000 apartments.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: We really need for our cities to focus on the affordable housing development and let
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: the county focus on homeless services and let's work together to make sure
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: that we can get people out of services and back into housing.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_02: Well, let's take a break right there for a word from our sponsor and we'll be back
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_02: with more from Shannon Singleton.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_02: A quick word from our show sponsor,
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_02: Dr. Adam Moret at Corbett Hill Wellness Center, people I know and trust.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, I'm Dr. Moret from Corbett Hill Wellness Center.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: People ask me, how do I know if I really need a chiropractor?
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_01: The truth is, you may not.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'll listen, figure out what's going on, and recommend care only when I think it can help.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: And with chiropractic,
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_01: massage,
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_01: acupuncture,
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: naturopathic medicine, laser treatment, shockwave, and more, you have options.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's about finding what's right for you.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: Corbett Hill Wellness Center.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_02: So one of the things that I think is on a lot of voters' minds,
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_02: and this is national as much as it is local, is affordability.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_02: And Portland and Multnomah County is an expensive place to live.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_02: So as county chair,
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_02: what are some things that you're thinking about as I'm sure you're hearing
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_02: from people as you talk to them throughout the community that the county can do
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_02: to help their daily meeting the grocery bill, the electric bill, the water bill?
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_02: These are not necessarily things in your control,
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_02: but like what can the county do to help people out?
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I think there's a couple of ways.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: One is our core county services.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: Part of what we do is try to help prevent evictions.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's where we see a lot of somebody pays the food bill or the light bill
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: and then doesn't have enough money for rent.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: We're watching my mom make that choice as a kid.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: Do I pay the light bill today or do I pay my mortgage?
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: Or do I buy the medicine?
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, exactly.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so that choice, you have a little more time on your rent sometimes than the other things.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so we could do eviction prevention better.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's some inefficiencies in our current system.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: We have to keep people inside.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: More people are becoming homeless every month in this community.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: Then we're able to house out of homelessness.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's something that folks really need to understand.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: The other is there's a role I think we can play in economic development.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: One example is the county owns a building called Walnut Park.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's our Northeast Health Clinic.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's Urban League has a senior center in there.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: We have Meals on Wheels.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: The community has been asking since 1997 for it to be something bigger.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's a whole block in northeast Portland.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're doing a public private partnership to look at redevelopment there
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: that will not just result in good paying jobs for the construction.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: But also the idea that there could be affordable housing,
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: keep community services there,
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: but also,
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: frankly, some small business opportunities could be a part of that project.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I think we can leverage county assets and resources into economic development.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other is workforce.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: And we've got to find a way to help people that are needing that crisis assistance
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: to actually increase their income.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: So how do we create pathways for them into better paying jobs?
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: I would love for our business community to show up and say,
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: we're going to help mentor folks into this type of role.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to help hire people and give people opportunity
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: to actually increase their income so they can afford to live here.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's crucial.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, government can do certain things, but there are a lot of things the government can't do.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_02: And so you need those private public partnerships with for profit businesses.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously,
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_02: the county relies heavily on nonprofit organizations to do a lot of
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_02: the frontline service work that they are willing to do that maybe others aren't.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_02: Talk to me about like some of the,
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_02: obviously you're talking to lots of people as you're out there on
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_02: the campaign trail.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: Have you gotten any good enthusiastic people out there
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_02: for private public partnerships, maybe from the business side of things?
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_02: We love our small businesses here.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_02: And quite frankly, we say we love our small businesses and we absolutely do.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_02: We also like our big businesses as much as we want them to pay their fair share of taxes.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_02: We are proud that Nike's here.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_02: We are proud that Intel's here.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_02: We're proud that Columbia's here.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_02: We are proud of our larger businesses as well.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_02: What opportunities do you see for that kind of private public partnership
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_02: that could benefit everybody?
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's a lot of our, again, our assets.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: The county may have assets or resources that we can use.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: Another example I'll give you is when we had some additional dollars
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: in supportive housing services money.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: I was briefly at the Joint Office of Homeless Services.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: We saw that as an opportunity to do some land banking and
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: so purchase some properties along 82nd Avenue that can be used for shelter,
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: but have a long term redevelopment opportunity that
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: the county can I think there's things like that we can be doing
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: that are just more forethought as opposed to just focusing on
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: the immediate now crisis.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: Also, I think we need to take a look at our services and what should be internal
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: and what should be contracted.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: The county can never be culturally specific, right?
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's not something a government can do.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_00: But we do have case managers.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: And should we be contracting everything in homeless services where we don't do
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: that everywhere else?
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: Should some of that come in-house so that we're actually creating some more jobs
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: within the existing government structure?
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_02: One of the things that I think has been frustrating to me over
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_02: the years is especially post-COVID.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_02: Multnomah County in Portland has just felt like it's been on its heels.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_02: Everything is defense.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_02: And there's been a lot of talk about,
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_02: you know, shoot, there were like doom loop prognostications.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just constantly defense, defense, defense, always playing defense.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_02: I want to hear the offense.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_02: How does Stella get the groove back?
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_02: How do we start saying, no,
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_02: we have a vision,
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_02: and this vision is something that you should come in on and be excited about?
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_02: I saw a recent survey published, I think, in the Oregonian or OPB or something.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_02: It said 63% of Portlanders are satisfied with Portland as a place to live.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_02: But what is our case for a positive vision?
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_02: We have so many amazing people here.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: We have amazing natural resources.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, one of the few places in the country that 90 minutes gets you to the ocean,
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_02: 90 minutes gets you to the mountain,
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_02: two hours to the desert, an hour to the rainforest.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's incredible.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_02: When I hear people fly into our town and they get out and they've never been here
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_02: before, they're like, oh my God, I must live here.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't know a place like this existed, right?
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yet the predominant narrative for the past five,
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_02: six years has been like, we're on our heels, we're on our defense.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_02: How do we lean in under you being chair as a, this is an amazing place.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like what's your positive competitive vision for bringing people in?
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's a couple.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_00: I love this because I always talk about we actually have a lot that we should be hopeful about.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: One is I think our Preschool for All program is absolutely an economic driver.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_02: I could not agree more.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_02: I've been so frustrated that it's always negative, negative, negative.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like,
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_02: any parent out there who's looking at $20,000 a year to have their kid in
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_02: a preschool situation, like, Hey, come on.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_02: We want you to your families.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_02: We want young families to relocate here.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think the other is I've had some really cool conversations
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: with some city counselors in Portland as well
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: on what could our creative economy look like?
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: How can we again leverage government resources?
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: We've got empty buildings or things that we're not necessarily using to their full potential.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: Can we co-locate?
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_00: Can we have some sort of creative economy where folks are actually able
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: to produce art and music?
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_00: And afford to live here again.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's something that I think has been lost as the price has increased in Portland.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the government can show up and if the building's already empty,
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: why aren't we using it for something that can be really supportive to the community?
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we saw some of that in other communities like Minneapolis where art,
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: the parks,
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: everything was integrated in a way that really started to be a driver
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_00: and folks not only wanted to move there, but then come to visit as well.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I would love for us to tap into that.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: We can both get tourism, but to your point, we can get more young families here.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I visited Miami over the past.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_02: I had not been to Miami before.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_02: It was my first time.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so I was doing the tourist thing.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the neighborhoods in Miami has leaned in hard to the graffiti.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_02: And now they are nationally known and they have an entire outdoor museum dedicated
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_02: to that type of art.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_02: It was, as they said,
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_02: the folks who were touring us around,
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_02: like, yeah, we had a big graffiti challenge here.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_02: People were always like, oh, it's terrible.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's ugly.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_02: It was industrial, you know, kind of things.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_02: And they said, you know what?
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_02: Instead of fighting it.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_02: Let's lean in.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_02: Let's build walls.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_02: Let's do things.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_02: And now like I was on tours, people are touring it.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_02: They're going to the museum.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_02: They're spending dollars there to see the artwork that is happening.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I was just like, man, and you know, graffiti is a thing here in Portland.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously that's,
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_02: that is an issue,
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_02: but it's just an example of somebody looking at a problem quote unquote and saying,
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_02: I can turn that into an advantage.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: I completely agree.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: And Philadelphia is known for its murals.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think very similar where graffiti was a problem.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then it became how do we actually tap into these amazing artists?
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: I love that they went the graffiti route in Miami.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: They went more let's do murals all over.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: The city and some were just guerrilla murals that showed up and some were organized,
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: but there's tours and people come to see those.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think that Portland has that talent.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_00: It has those artists here and we haven't actually figured out how to activate it.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's something I want to really be able to work on with our city partners.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_02: So you get this job and you are going to be the head of a $4 billion government.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's a big B there.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_02: Now, obviously all of those dollars are not just,
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_02: you can spend them However you want a lot of those are committed and are
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_02: for specific things and must be spent on those things.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_02: And so even with that size of a budget, you're looking at a budget that's going to be tight.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_02: And you are no doubt going to be faced with making cuts in your first year as chair.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_02: There are only a couple levers when it comes to balancing budgets.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_02: As anybody who has a checkbook knows,
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_02: you can either bring in more money into the checking account or you can spend less,
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_02: right?
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_02: You can send less out.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, those are really your levers.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_02: How do you approach this in your mind as you're thinking
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_02: about assuming this responsibility and being the leader of this county?
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_02: What are you thinking about as you approach this budget scenario?
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_00: I really want to flip our whole budget process on its head.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_00: We don't start with the human beings who are being served.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_00: I want to start with them and they tell us what's actually working instead
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_00: of we've just always done this program so we're going to keep doing it.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's things that we do really well and we should do those.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: We should expand those where we can.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I think there's some efficiencies as well.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_00: Also, I fund outcomes.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: If somebody can't tell me the outcomes of their program,
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_00: then that's not a program that should be funded.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that cuts across.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: I want to know the outcomes from the DA's office.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_00: If they aren't meeting what the community expectations are, then I don't want to fund them.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_00: Frankly, if we're not getting referrals into restorative justice, then what are we doing?
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's a part of our work and we have to think about public safety more holistically.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to make sure that we're really living our values in our budget and
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: that we're funding the things that community wants and needs
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_00: and not just what has been the status quo.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_02: I want to get us into the race a little bit.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_02: We've been talking about the policy,
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_02: the things that you're going to do,
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_02: the challenges and opportunities that are facing us.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_02: This is the first ranked choice race that this county has had for chair.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_02: You didn't have to go through a primary.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_02: You are going straight to the ranked choice.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_02: Does that change anything for your strategy, your campaign?
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_02: How have you approached that?
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, frankly, with the finance limits, it's been great to not have to try and do it twice.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think that it hasn't really changed the way that I've run.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm again, we talked about how I've been a social worker.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're not in I'm known for making a lot of money, so the self-financing isn't real for me.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm always going to be a grassroots campaign,
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_00: but also it's more important to me that I reflect what the community wants.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so I've been spending my time knocking doors,
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_00: having different community forums,
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_00: talking to folks about what they need and want,
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_00: and really trying to get that kind of grassroots support from a
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate ranked choice voting,
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_00: but it's important folks know, unlike last time, there's only one seat.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so I do want,
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_00: even if folks rank me first and rank nobody else,
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_00: but if you're going to rank somebody else first,
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_00: rank me second has been my strategy.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know,
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_02: I think one of the challenges for voters is this everybody in Portland runs as
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_02: a progressive.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody's a progressive.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_02: And it's so much so that I feel like the word has lost all meaning.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_02: The guy who ran against me is currently RDA,
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_02: who recently charged a 15 year old with terrorism and is vowing to try him as
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_02: an adult, claimed to be a progressive.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's very hard for voters to be like, well, I'm a progressive.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_02: And they say they're a progressive.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I guess I get to choose between three progressives.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_02: The words lost all meaning.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_02: What does it mean to you to be a progressive?
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I completely agree.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_00: For me, being a progressive,
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: one, I want to encourage folks to look at our records and not our rhetoric.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people are saying progressive, but what they've done does not show that.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_00: For me,
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_00: it really means making sure that we are protecting And so we have to be finding ways
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_00: to get people out of the system as opposed to ways to keep them locked up in
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_00: the system for a while.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_00: So it's centering the people, again, who are most impacted.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's pushing back on Donald Trump and these terrible policies,
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_00: not just like Medicaid cuts that we talked about,
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_00: but also the terror that his ICE agents are wreaking in our community.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the only person who has stood up to him consistently in my job as
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_00: a commissioner, and I absolutely will do the same as chair.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a really critical piece.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_00: We're kind of stuck here for another two years and we have to keep pushing back.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_02: You've gotten a lot of endorsements and endorsements I think are huge
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_02: because they signal,
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_02: that is one of the ways that people can like really tease out,
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_02: okay, who is a progressive?
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_02: Who are the groups that I look at?
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, I'm aligned with those groups.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, they're endorsing this candidate.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_02: What I want you to tell me is which of the endorsements you've received is
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_02: the most meaningful to you.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_02: And it doesn't have to be a big organization or a person
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_02: that people have necessarily heard of, but for you, or it can be.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_02: What's the most meaningful endorsement you've received?
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, my gosh.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_00: Can't be your mom, though.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get beyond that.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's incredible.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_00: I would say the most impactful for me has been NextUp Action Fund.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_00: NextUp is young people and really wanting to center how young people are civically engaged.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_00: They do a lot of education and training.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_00: They're also doing ranked choice education because for East Multnomah County,
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_00: they've never done ranked choice voting before.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_00: And having young people say, we believe in your vision, that's really powerful for me.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_00: When young people don't believe in you, you shouldn't be that next leader.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_02: Feel that.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_02: You're on the doors.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, you're going to leave this interview and you're going to go hit those doors.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_02: What's the strangest thing somebody has said to you when you knocked on the door?
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I think it was definitely the guy who's just like, I don't vote.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like as soon as I knocked, didn't ask.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't ask a question.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't say anything.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, well, do
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_02: you buy vacuum cleaner?
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then he's like, but my wife votes.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_00: I said, great.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_00: Can I leave you literature for her then and not waste your time?
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, sure.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought that was pretty funny.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_00: He must have been getting doorknocked by a lot of
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_02: candidates.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_02: You've also been doing a lot of candidate forums.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_02: Give us a moment from a forum that either was great or not great or went sideways.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_02: Give us a little taste of your life.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think a forum that I would have done differently,
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_00: at least this one piece,
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_00: was there was an Urban League and SEI forum,
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_00: and one of my competitors took credit for something that I actually did.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't call her out on it.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think I was so shocked,
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_00: but I definitely would have called her out on that if that happened again.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_02: And, and, and then those, you know, that I know that forum, it was online, it was virtual.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like your face isn't up there.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_02: So they couldn't see the hard side.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_02: Wait a minute.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_02: Wait a minute.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_02: I did that.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_02: What's the question you get asked the most on the trail?
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely around homelessness is the biggest question.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, you know, affordability looks different for a lot of people.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know,
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_00: some people are talking about mortgages,
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_00: but it's about homelessness by and far large.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_02: What's a question you wish people would ask you?
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I wish people would ask about some of the work that I think the county can do in
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_00: that economic development, that public private partnership that I talked about.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's something that we don't get to talk about a lot.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there's some cool things we can do.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_02: Tell us about a voter who gave you some feedback or asked you a question
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_02: who maybe changed your mind or if not, who you just can't stop thinking about.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I would say one would be a gentleman who was talking about his reverse mortgage
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_00: and how challenging it was to find affordability.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I just it's not necessarily something that fully lives within the county's control.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_00: But it made me think about how are we addressing the needs of our seniors
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_00: and how can we show up,
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_00: whether it's as an advocate or using our bully pulpit,
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_00: because reverse mortgages are just they're they're rough.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_02: Pernicious.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_02: Your campaign survival kit.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_02: If I went and sat in your backseat right now, what would I have to move out of the way?
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first and foremost, my Star Wars sun visor, you would have to move.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_00: You would also have to move.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_00: I have a big bin of snacks for all of our field days so that folks have some snacks and water.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is important.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_02: What's the best snack you carry?
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_02: And if it's healthy, this is going to be problem.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's definitely not healthy.
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_00: There's healthy stuff in there, but I probably always go to the Doritos.
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_02: I need that Cheetos.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_02: I need those Lays.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like, come on.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_02: Need that salty.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_02: What's a campaign moment that has made you laugh incredibly hard or cried?
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_00: You can do either.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think it was, gosh, cried.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_00: No, I think I laughed a lot with my team,
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_00: just as we've kind of talked about how are we going to get out there?
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_00: How are we like,
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_00: what's our plan around the doors and making sure that we have folks who we've got
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of folks who have never canvassed before.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so doing some of those trainings has been really hilarious
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_00: because people quickly fall into their role.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_00: We do a role play and they make themselves really mean as
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_00: the person getting door knocked that usually you don't actually experience.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_00: People are not that mean when you knock on their door.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_02: People are not.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_02: If they're going to be that mean, they just don't answer.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_02: Here's the District 2 lightning round.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_02: If somebody comes out of town, where are you taking them in your current district?
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm probably taking them to Mosaic Tap House for dinner.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's Vietnamese food.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_00: So good.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_00: Also just awesome owners of that place.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it's got both an indoor outdoor space that's outdoor heated,
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_00: which I think is big for Portland.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_02: Shout out Mosaic.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_02: Give us a county employee or program that doesn't get enough credit.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, our vector control, I think, which I was like, what does that even mean?
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is the stuff that makes sure we don't have as many mosquitoes.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_00: They deal with rats and all sorts of things that are essentially the things
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_00: that can carry disease.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_00: People don't know about it.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_00: They don't think about it.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_00: But it's definitely a really critical program.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_02: That's when you know government's working.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_02: People don't know about it.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_02: They don't think about it.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not an issue.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_02: Shout out vector control.
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_02: Give us the last thing that made you genuinely optimistic about Multnomah County.
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I think it was really working with the Preschool for All staff.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to them,
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_00: we're not hearing from I keep hearing from teachers that we're not hearing
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_00: from them.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, oh, my gosh, you're right.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_00: This was a misstep and immediately started finding ways to change that.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_00: That willingness to hear the feedback and make a change that gives me hope.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_02: What is something that you have changed your mind on in the last,
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_02: since you've been in your position as commissioner?
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, I think the Moda Center would be one.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_00: I really started in a place of not knowing some of the different funding mechanisms,
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_00: like how is this something that the county can afford?
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_00: But then hearing from my community about,
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_00: hey, this is actually an opportunity for restorative development.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_00: And this has had a huge impact on the black community,
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_00: not just in our housing, but our businesses.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_00: When this arena was built,
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_00: it made me think about it differently and try to find opportunity
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_00: for actually benefiting community.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_02: Final question.
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_02: Where can people learn more about your campaign?
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_00: They can learn more at shannonsingleton.org.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_00: You can endorse me there.
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_00: You can learn about other folks and community leaders who are supporting me.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you can learn about my policies and my values and who I am.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_02: If someone wants to go knock doors with you, will you allow them to do that?
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's a volunteer sheet on the website as well, and you can sign up to knock doors.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you don't like to do that, you can sign up to write postcards.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_00: We have a lot of folks right now writing postcards that then are getting mailed out
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_00: to their neighbors to talk about why they support me.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I keep hearing the most lovely stories as people receive those postcards.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_00: So they've been really meaningful.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_02: Commissioner Shannon Singleton, thank you so much for coming on the show.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_02: That's our show.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_02: A big thank you to Commissioner Shannon Singleton for sitting down with me.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_02: We covered a lot of ground.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_02: We heard her origin story, the moment that set her on this path.
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_02: She told us what progressive actually means to her in a city
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_02: where everybody is claiming that label.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_02: We got into the nuts and bolts of the homeless system and how
• 1:01:48
  SPEAKER_02: the county chair can lean into the affordability crisis and what she'd do with
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_02: the $4 billion budget that's not getting any bigger.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_02: She told us which endorsement means the most to her and we got some tales from the trail.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_02: Hint, she keeps the best snacks in the Tupperware container in her backseat.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, as always, to our Season 3 sponsor, Corbett Hill Wellness.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_02: If your business or organization wants to sponsor Independent Civic Media
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_02: in Portland, please reach out.
• 1:02:13
  SPEAKER_02: We'd love to talk to you.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_02: And as always, for the listeners, please support the sponsors that support this show.
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_02: If you got something out of this episode,
• 1:02:21
  SPEAKER_02: share it with a friend,
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_02: especially one who's still figuring out how to rank this race.
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_02: Leave us a review,
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_02: post about us on social, and follow us on Substack so you never miss an episode.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_02: And one last thing, ballots get mailed out on October 14th.
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_02: Keep an eye on your mailbox.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_02: Fill it out,
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_02: rank your choices,
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_02: and get it back as soon as you can, but certainly before the November 3rd deadline.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_02: Make sure you vote.
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_02: Until next week, I'm Mike Schmidt.
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_02: Stay curious and go enjoy a fall event in our beautiful community.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_02: A quick word from our show sponsor,
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_02: Dr. Adam Moret at Corbett Hill Wellness Center, people I know and trust.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, I'm Dr. Moret from Corbett Hill Wellness Center.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_01: Feeling good isn't just about getting rid of pain.
• 1:03:03
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• 1:03:05
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• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's why we look at the whole person with chiropractic,
• 1:03:12
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• 1:03:18
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• 1:03:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's staying active and feeling your best.
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_01: Corbett Hill Wellness Center.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_01: Move well, feel well, live well.
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_01: Visit corbethill.com.