[April 30th, 2008]

Mike Delman

Tattoo he’d get: The names of his daughters, Jill and Claire, on the bottoms of his feet. (Ouch!)

Feeling underrepresented? Voters in Multnomah County District 3 have a right to feel that way after their current commissioner, Lisa Naito, moved out of her district and into the West Hills in July 2005.

But help—and an actual district resident—is on the way. Naito, who has served on the Board of Commissioners since 1998, can’t run again because of term limits. And a particularly strong crop of six contenders is vying to replace her. Our choice is Mike Delman, a 20-year resident of District 3 with a proven record in Multnomah County government.

The decision wasn’t easy. Delman faces two particularly strong competitors. One is Judy Shiprack, who served as a state rep for parts of District 3 from 1987 to 1991. She currently works in Naito’s office as director of the county’s Local Public Safety Coordinating Council. The other is Rob Milesnick, a lobbyist for Oregon Dental Services who earned the always-key AFSCME endorsement. Milesnick says his enthusiasm prompted him to move to District 3 last year just to qualify to run for office (see “Moving Man,” WW, March 19, 2008).

Other candidates are manufacturing technician Roy Burkett, county property appraiser Bruce Barclay and perennial ballot-space filler Ron McCarty, a tax consultant who had a disastrous career as a state legislator and a Mount Hood Community College board member, including a bar fight with the head of the school senate. None of the three merits consideration.

Milesnick’s energy is impressive. But with Commissioner Jeff Cogen and Chairman Ted Wheeler, the board already is stocked with its share of youngish idealists. Delman, 51, would balance them as an old hand who knows the local players and understands how to work the byzantine county bureaucracy. That knowledge comes from his work as chief of staff to former Commissioner Gary Hansen and for the county’s Department of Aging and Disability Services. In his current job as public affairs director for the Portland Habilitation Center, he’s worked to help a vulnerable population get a leg up in the community.

If Delman occasionally seems too gruff to work well with others, we think he also has the instincts to bend reluctant partners to the county’s benefit—an ability that would prove useful as Wheeler struggles to push through changes at the state and regional level to ensure the county’s long-term solvency.

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