[April 30th, 2008]

Robert Liberty

Tattoo he’d get: A map of Oregon tattooed on his arm.

People who don’t pay much attention to Metro might be surprised to learn that Robert Liberty is perhaps the most fiscally conservative member of a notoriously liberal council.

First appointed to Metro six years ago, after serving as the director of 1000 Friends of Oregon for eight years, the 54-year-old Harvard- and Oxford-educated lawyer might appear to be the prototypical inner eastside tax-and-spender. And it’s true nobody advocates more aggressively than Liberty for public transportation, increased density and land conservation. But his role on a council that shares many of those values, even if not as fervently, is to be the house skeptic.

Nobody has asked more questions about the assumptions underlying the outrageously porky proposal that Metro back a heavily subsidized hotel to prop up the agency’s white elephant, the Oregon Convention Center. And no elected official at Metro or any other public agency has raised as many tough questions about the mother of all pork-barrel projects, the proposed $4 billion I-5 bridge between Washington and Oregon.

Liberty’s supporters may not have elected him to play a watchdog role, but that function is a welcome bonus on top of the land-use expertise he brings. His opponent, Cole Miller, a PSU student, has not mounted a serious campaign.

Video of WW endorsement interview (thanks to Portland Community Media)