A Column That's Never Moved To Camas.

  1. Portland Public Schools Superintendent Carole Smith is keeping mum about her restyled high-school redesign until the Sept. 27 School Board meeting. But one element of the plan, which calls for closing some schools by fall 2011, has already leaked out. Under Smith’s latest proposal, no student would be forced to attend Jefferson High School. Instead, Jefferson would offer students “dual citizenship” at Jeff or one of three neighborhood schools: Roosevelt, Grant or Madison High. That idea of letting Jefferson students choose from four schools first surfaced last spring when the redesign process ground to a halt amid lack of board consensus.
  2. One mayor’s discard is another commissioner’s treasure. After reports surfaced last week that Mayor Sam Adams had dumped his nine-person Police Bureau budget advisory committee, Commissioner Amanda Fritz sent an email to the spurned chairwoman of the volunteer group, T.J. Browning, offering her a spot on the Bureau of Emergency Communications budget advisory group. “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end,” Fritz wrote in an email Sept. 8. Browning will take the post.
  3. Former U.S. Rep. Darlene Hooley (D-Ore.) and ex-Multnomah County Commissioner Lisa Naito are teaming up to open a political consulting business. Hooley, who represented the 5th Congressional District for 12 years, retiring in 2008, will focus on mediation and problem solving. Naito, who left the county in 2008 after a decade, will lobby the Legislature. “If a client really wants me to do something in Washington, D.C., we’ll look at that also,” Hooley says.
  1. An interesting twist in the campaign for Multnomah County commissioner: City Commissioner Dan Saltzman recently gave $250 contributions to both county candidates, Karol Collymore and Loretta Smith. That caught politicos’ eyes because Saltzman backed Collymore in the May primary (Collymore’s boss, county Chair Jeff Cogen, is Saltzman’s former chief of staff). After Collymore placed first in the primary, Saltzman, Cogen and Collymore even threw a joint election-night victory party. But now Smith and Collymore both tell WW that Saltzman months ago told them he decided to stay neutral in the general election. Which is curious since as recently as Sept. 8, Collymore kept Saltzman listed as an endorser on her website.
  2. Protest alert: On Wednesday, Sept. 15, the local chapter of Jobs With Justice will rally to demand that federal lawmakers not cut Social Security or Medicare. Organizers expect at least 100 people to attend the demonstration, which is part of a national day of action two weeks before President Obama’s deficit commission meets. At 4:15 pm, protesters will march from Northeast 6th Avenue and Holladay Street to the offices of U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer and Sen. Ron Wyden (both D-Ore.) to deliver petitions urging preservation of these “safety net” programs. Then it’s on to Holladay Park for a rally.

WWeek 2015

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