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Crisis
CONTROL
Dear Mrs. Canada,
Your son, Ben, seems to understand the assignment he
was given, but his reluctance to turn it in on time could
cause a big disturbance. Please talk to him.
Last week a group of minority activists presented Portland
Public Schools Superintendent Ben Canada with a list of
remedies for schools at which 30 percent or more of all
students are performing below grade level. The document,
delivered by the Education Crisis Team, comes after a year
of talks about how to improve 14 low-performing schools
with high minority populations.
If the School Board doesn't adopt the remedies by the group's
May 12 deadline, Canada and the board may have a mess on
their hands. "We've had to take direct action--picketing,
walkouts, demonstrations--to force every major change in
Portland Public Schools in the last 20 years," says team
member Ron Herndon of the Albina Ministerial Alliance. "The
community isn't any less prepared to do that today."
Herndon and others are proposing that the board make some
big changes, including redeploying the district's best teachers;
adopting a standardized "best practices" curriculum; hiring
an "achievement czar"; and revamping federally funded programs
aimed at low-income and minority students.
Canada, however, thinks it would be premature to act before
June, when the district completes its strategic plan, which
specifically addresses minority underachievement. "I share
their sense of urgency," he says, "but it would be wrong
to support one piece of the plan without complete information."
His response doesn't convince the Crisis Team.
"Unless we do something drastic and do it now," says co-leader
Tony Hopson of Self Enhancement Inc., "some of these kids
will never catch up." --Nigel Jaquiss
CITY
HALL SHUFFLE
On Monday, Jim Francesconi didn't look like a city commissioner
on the verge of re-election. Sitting in his City Hall office,
he toyed with a keychain while fielding questions about
Mayor Vera Katz's reshuffling of city bureaus. Although
all four commissioners endorsed this week's shake-up, Francesconi
isn't happy.
"It has been less than ideal," he says. "We don't have
a common strategic plan among council members."
He's referring to Katz's practice of letting commissioners
see the budgets for only their own bureaus. It's a tactic
some council watchers say creates conflict that hinders
long-range, strategic budgeting.
"She's not sharing the overall picture," Francesconi said.
Katz seemed baffled by the criticism. "That's the way we
traditionally do things, and Jim knows it," she told WW.
Although Francesconi is focusing on process, there's also
an issue of power here.
Katz's move is seen as a bold, perhaps desperate, attempt
to deliver a balanced 2000-02 budget. It's also viewed as
a loss of clout for Francesconi, who saw his Bureau of General
Services absorbed into a new Office of Management and Finance.
The new office will be headed by Tim Grewe, current head
of the Office of Finance and Administration, who becomes
a quasi-city manager, overseeing six bureaus.
The restructuring also includes deep cuts in consulting
and administrative expenses. City employees will lose jobs,
says Sam Adams, Katz's chief of staff, who declined to estimate
potential savings.
Katz insists her dramatic move wasn't spurred by Commissioner
Erik Sten's March 16 proposal to consolidate administrative
duties. Francesconi, however, says the Sten memo upped the
profile of what had been an unpublicized idea.
Katz has to deliver her budget to the public May 15, but
as things stand, she might have trouble rounding up the
two needed votes.
Francesconi is clearly miffed. And as for Sten, "I'm not
a vote for her budget yet," he says. "I have to see the
whole context."
--Philip Dawdy
DOGDAYS
Gary Hendel, the newly named director of Multnomah County's
Animal Control, has a reputation for turning around beleaguered
agencies. We'll soon find out whether it's deserved.
Hendel, executive director of the Maui Humane Society,
won't start his job until May 22, but he's already got his
first assignment: settle a dust-up between a local volunteer
dog-rescue group and Steve Raimo, Animal Control's acting
director.
Foster Pets of Oregon's mission is to keep dogs away from
the needle of death. Since last September it has saved 250
dogs and adopted them out.
Raimo says Foster Pets makes it difficult for him to run
the already embattled agency. He says the group doesn't
show up at the Troutdale pound to pick up dogs when it promises
to, and it absorbs too much of his personnel's time.
So two weeks ago, Raimo limited Foster Pets' access to
information. Previously, he gave the group Animal Control's
daily euthanasia list--the roster of death-row dogs facing
the needle. Now he's providing only a list of animals available
for adoption each day; this list doesn't indicate which
dogs are slated for immediate euthanasia and which may be
staying at the shelter for up to three months.
"There's a huge difference between these lists," says Claudia
Smith of Foster Pets. She says going from the available
list turns dog rescue into a guessing game. As a result,
she says, as many as 15 adoptable dogs may have been euthanized
in the past two weeks.
Asked if he'd tell the group which dogs on the adoption
list faced immediate euthanasia, Raimo said, "No."
Raimo, who was runner-up for the permanent director post,
says he won't change the policy and doesn't know that any
"fully adoptable" dogs have been euthanized.
Hendel seems to be taking a more diplomatic approach. He
told WW that he'll meet with the group and other
animal activists by the end of the month. "If there's a
rescue group that can help me get a dog into a home, then
I'll work with them all day long," he says. --Philip
Dawdy
Murmurs
HEARSAY
AND IDOL GOSSIP
Erin Brockovich was relegated to a cameo in
her namesake movie, while Julia Roberts did a busty
rendition of the nervy paralegal as she unearthed wrongdoing
by a large California utility. Now the real Brockovich will
star in a commercial for opponents of Ballot Measure 81, saying
the measure would restrict the public's access to justice.
Black activism is alive and well in, of all places, Lake
Oswego. On May 1, the suburb often referred to as Lake No-Negro
will play host to Bobby Seale, founding member of
the Black Panther Party. Seale will be lecturing at Lake
Oswego High School. Nathan Baptiste, an African-American
junior at LOHS, was a leading force in orchestrating the
appearance of the civil-rights leader. (TK pm Monday,
May 1. Lake Oswego High School Cafteteria, 2501 SW Country
Club Road. $5 adults, $3 students.)
Continuing his mission to bring full employment to the
local media market, KPAM radio news director Bill Gallagher
plucked former KOIN-TV reporter Eric Mason from the
sidelines. Mason, who covered Salem for KOIN, will do investigative
stories for KPAM, the soon-to-launch (May 1) news/talk station
owned by tycoon Robert Pamplin Jr.
Portland's fledgling efforts to put arty bike racks
on the streets will get a boost from Fred Meyer,
which is donating $10,000 to install four whimsical sculptures
around the city. The designs haven't been finalized, but
nominees include a salmon, a rose and (hey! why didn't we
think of that?) a bicycle.
Rumors are flying that Lolenzo Poe, the county's
Community and Family Services czar, fired Mike McCracken,
a consultant hired by the county to staff its Mental Health
Task Force, as payback when the task force released a report
criticizing Poe's leadership. The real story, however, is
less sensational. Contacted by WW, McCracken said
his contract was terminated before it was due to expire
because the task force completed its work ahead of schedule.
Conspiracy fans are crestfallen.
Overheard, Eastbound Max, 7:45 a.m., April 24:
"I made some lifestyle choices that weren't conducive to
my completing my undergraduate studies at that time."
--One rider explaining to another why
he was heading back to college, at a somewhat late date,
to finish his degree. (We're guessing political science
or public relations.)
THE ART
OF FEELING GUILTY
In a curatorial about-face from the gilt and pomp of the
Stroganoff exhibition, the Portland Art Museum is
bringing an international collection of work by 80 contemporary
artists to town. Let's Entertain: Life's Guilty Pleasures,
currently at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, opens
here July 7. The exhibition will run through September before
traveling to the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
Society's consumer urges and lust for entertainment will
take center stage in the exhibit, which includes sculpture,
painting, photography, video, Internet, games and more.
The work of some of the art world's usual suspects will
be on view, including Cindy Sherman's seminal series Untitled
Film Stills, Andy Warhol's film Fifteen Minutes and
Leigh Bowery's Death in Vegas, a film that reimagines
Elvis Presley's final hours.
Let's Entertain also includes work inspired by manga
(Japanese comic-book art), such as Lee Bul's sculptures
Cyborg Blue and Cyborg Red and Takashi Murakami's
life-size cartoon sculptures Hiropon and My Lonesome
Cowboy.
Much of the art in this exhibition is interactive: Viewers
will be able to play on Maurizio Cattelan's 22-player foosball
table or listen to David Shea's soundtrack composed for
the show. To get a taste of what's to come, visit the online
exhibition of Web-based artwork at aen.walkerart.org.
--Karrin Ellertson
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