News Promising a reign of personal humility and environmental sustainability, Jeff Cogen was sworn in this morning as Multnomah County chair. "I'm going to be guided by my personal values and the values over the last year I've discovered I share with my board," Cogen said in his acceptance speech. Cogen, who was in the final year of his first term as a county commissioner, replaces Ted Wheeler, ...   More

News Ex-Gov. John Kitzhaber, running in the Democratic gubernatorial primary for his old job, isn't the only one getting political donations from Nike. The company also swooshed into Portland politics last week when it gave $2,000 apiece to two candidates who each have little-financed challengers in the May primary. The recipients of the Nike contributions are City Commissioner Nick Fish and Multnomah ...   More

News New Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen this morning presented his proposed 2010-2011 budget to the board of commissioners, who will now spend a few weeks wrangling with department heads before passing a final spending plan next month. It was the 10th straight year of budget cuts in Multnomah County, due mainly to declining state revenues that pass through the county and Oregon's screwed-up property ...   More

News The photo above shows Karol Collymore checking the preliminary results of the primary vote. After initial results came in showing Collymore with 34 percent of the vote and in first place in an eight-candidate field in the race for Multnomah County commission, Collymore wasn't quite ready for an interview. "I'm going to wait for my legs to work again," said Collymore, who now advances to the ...   More

News Like clockwork each year, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schrunk rides into battle against the county chair's office to fend off budget cuts in the DA's office. After 29 years in office and 10 straight years of shrinking county budgets, Schrunk is regarded as a quiet master at such fights. This year he's found allies in traditionally law-and-order-oriented East County with county Commissioner ...   More

News The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners this morning unanimously approved a $392 million general-fund budget that gives District Attorney Mike Schrunk greater flexibility in setting priorities for his office. The dust-up over Schrunk's budget has been the big county story in a year when the county had to cut $5.4 million from its general-fund budget, the 10th straight year of cuts. County ...   More

News The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners today unanimously approved an ambitious package of recommendations from the county Charter Review Committee. The committee now will submit the proposed changes to county code for approval by voters in the November election. Committee member Brian Wilson noted several of those changes been shot down by county voters in the past — including eliminating ...   More

News The Multnomah County Charter Review Committee will present recommendations [PDF] to the county commission tomorrow on a series of measures they suggest putting on the November ballot. Such committees sometimes handle mundane technical fixes, but tomorrow's recommendations — which follow a series of 13 public meetings held since September 2009 — include a proposals for number of high-profile ...   More

News Multnomah County's estimated costs for its investigation into the disappearance of 7-year-old Kyron Horman have climbed past $400,000. But County Chair Jeff Cogen believes law enforcement is close enough to cracking the case that cost will not become an issue. "If they were continuing to spend money like this six months from now, I'd be concerned," Cogen tells WW. "But I don't think anyone ...   More

News Add one more money measure to the Nov. 2 ballot. The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners today unanimously approved asking county voters to OK a five-year, $10 million levy to fund the financially threatened Oregon Historical Society, which runs the society's museum and library in downtown Portland. If county voters OK the levy, it would add a nickel per $1,000 of assessed property value, ...   More