Murmurs: DOJ Warned Brown Hope, Will Now Investigate

DOJ WARNED BROWN HOPE, WILL NOW INVESTIGATE: Embattled racial justice nonprofit Brown Hope voted last week to keep founder and CEO Cameron Whitten in his job pending the outcome of internal and Oregon Department of Justice probes into whistleblower allegations of mismanagement at the organization. One issue: Until last week, Brown Hope’s board hadn’t met for 14 months, and the whistleblower document alleges poor record-keeping. Emails WW obtained though a public records request show that DOJ explicitly told Whitten in September 2020 to “regularly download and save all financial records” so they could be easily retrieved in future. Whistleblowers have raised questions about whether the group, which got substantial funding from city, county and state sources as well as major foundations, did that. The emails also show that Elizabeth Grant, who heads DOJ’s charitable activities section, contacted Brown Hope board president Greg McKelvey on Dec. 14. “If the organization has an attorney, please have them contact me,” Grant wrote. If not, “I believe it would be helpful to arrange a conference call.”

HOME DELIVERY COMPANIES AREN’T CHECKING IDS WHEN DROPPING OFF BOOZE: The Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission have been running a sting operation over the past year with a volunteer team of 20-somethings—they’ve ordered booze on their phones and tallied whether delivery drivers checked for proof of age. The results are now in: Deliveries were “noncompliant” more than a third of the time, and the rate was even higher for younger buyers. Nearly half of deliveries to volunteers ages 21-23 didn’t pass muster. Most of the time, the delivery driver failed to compare the picture on photo ID with the face of the buyer. In 2% of cases, the driver simply left the purchase at the door. The report mentions two delivery services by name, DoorDash and Instacart, but does not disclose the companies’ compliance rates. An Instacart spokeswoman emailed WW an extensive list of protocols that drivers must follow to verify IDs, including matching photographs with faces. A spokesman for DoorDash said the company had “recently rolled out industry-leading safety features” and was willing to work with lawmakers. Oregon legislators declined to pass a bill last year that would have authorized regulators to penalize alcohol delivery services, just as they do restaurants. “We need to work together on this,” says Bryant Haley, an OLCC spokesman.

ETHICS COMMISSION SAYS NOPE TO KNOPP: As WW first reported in July, one of Salem’s most powerful lawmakers, Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp (R-Bend), planned to hire his son Reagan Knopp to be chief of staff for the Senate Republican Caucus. Oregon has an anti-nepotism statute, but the law includes a carve-out that allows lawmakers to hire family members for their personal legislative staffs. The Legislative Counsel Office issued an opinion conceding the situation was ambiguous, but that it was “likely” kosher for Knopp to hire his son for a position that serves all GOP senators, not just Knopp. Last week, in a tortured nine-page advisory opinion first reported by the Oregon Capital Chronicle, the Oregon Government Ethics Commission disagreed, saying the loophole that allows lawmakers to hire family members “does not apply” to caucus staff. Reagan Knopp will now serve as chief of staff for his father only.

CHASING GHOSTS CONTINUES IN 2023: Since August, readers have been sending WW addresses for vacant buildings, and we’ve been sleuthing out the circumstances of their sad, empty condition. We’ve written about the Taft Home and the Quality Pie Building. We know what happened to Poor Richard’s and a Latter-day Saints meetinghouse on Southeast Harrison Street. One of those buildings, the former Gordon’s Fireplace Shop at Northeast 33rd Avenue and Broadway, is inching toward rebirth after a very slow permitting process. Developer Rob Brewster reports the city waived more than $50,000 in fines, and Neon Brooks of the Grant Park Neighborhood Association says the adjacent sprawling homeless encampment and “open-air chop shop” that led his group to complain to City Hall in September is now mostly gone. “The interior is sandblasted and cleaned up,” Brewster says. “Lots more work to do.” At wweek.com, you can read about another corner in Northeast Portland where two mystery buildings stand cheek by battered jowl.