Murmurs: Blosser Decides Against Run for City Council

BLOSSER DECIDES AGAINST RUN FOR CITY COUNCIL: Nik Blosser, onetime chief of staff to Gov. Kate Brown, tells WW he wanted to run for the Portland City Council this November, but decided against it once he learned that he’d have to give up his stake in the winery he co-owns in the Willamette Valley. That rule in the city charter—that officeholders in Portland city government can’t make outside income—has been in the city charter since 1913. But in 2022, Portland voters approved an overhaul of city government that creates a 12-member City Council dedicated to passing policy (instead of what the current City Council does, which is manage city bureaus). The new role of city councilors mirrors that of state legislators, who often hold outside jobs—but it pays double the salary, and the city charter remains unchanged in its prohibition of outside sources of income. Blosser says he wasn’t willing to give up his ownership stake in Sokol Blosser Winery. “I consider myself a pretty progressive guy,” Blosser says. “I don’t know the history of this section of the charter, but it seems to have come from Karl Marx’s handbook.”

JAIL DEPUTY ACCUSED OF FORGING LOG BOOKS PRIOR TO INMATE SUICIDE: An investigation last year into a series of deaths at Multnomah County’s jails led to criminal charges against two jail deputies. But prosecutors offered few details why they’d brought the official misconduct charges, and police reports released by the county were almost entirely redacted. Last week, however, prosecutors offered more details in one of the cases. Corrections deputy James Brauckmiller, prosecutors wrote, “failed to perform his duty to check on the inmates in his dorm and forged a checklist used to denote when those checks were made.” Brauckmiller was assigned to conduct two checks every hour. “An inmate was found deceased in a cell that [Brauckmiller] was supposed to be checking,” prosecutors note. This confirms what has long been suspected—WW reported in August that Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell had been warning deputies at the jail to stop forging log books or be fired. The document, filed in response to attempts by Brauckmiller’s attorneys to get the case thrown out on a technicality, does not name the deceased inmate. The date of the alleged crime listed on the indictment, however, coincides with the morning 58-year-old Martin Todd Franklin was found dead in his cell. He had hanged himself from a grate in the ceiling with a bed sheet.

OREGON STATE HOSPITAL TO BEEF UP SECURITY: Oregon State Hospital is hiring a new team of 75 people to monitor closed circuit video feeds in the wake of a federal investigation that found the psychiatric facility was failing to protect patients from sexual and physical assaults. Investigators criticized blind spots in the hospital’s 1,200-camera system, which was monitored by only three people. The announcement, at an advisory board meeting last week, comes as hospital administrators try to convince the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a federal regulator, that they’ve solved the problem. “We’re talking patient safety here—this is a big deal,” says Micky Logan, the hospital’s director of legal affairs. “CMS knows it’s a big deal, and they’re paying close attention.” The hospital submitted a plan to CMS on May 9 that includes the creation of a “24/7 video monitoring team” to keep better tabs on both patients and staff, whom investigators found weren’t attending their stations. CMS has promised to return in the coming weeks to ensure the hospital has implemented the fixes.

CITY COUNCIL TELLS PROSPER PORTLAND TO SIMPLIFY: Prosper Portland, the city’s once-powerful economic development agency that redeveloped Slabtown and the South Waterfront, has for a decade been in the throes of an identity crisis. Its bread and butter of creating urban renewal districts with tax-increment financing to boost development and jobs went out of favor as its work appeared to foster gentrification. Since then, Prosper has tried to pivot and broaden the types of projects it undertakes to spur development—with mixed success. At a May 8 presentation before the City Council, Prosper executive director Kimberly Branam said the agency was at an “inflection point” and needed some wins, especially as the city has struggled to get back on its feet after COVID-19 and the racial justice protests of 2020. City Commissioner Dan Ryan told Branam he felt Prosper was spreading itself too thin and needed to home in on a few big projects—especially the redevelopment of the old post office lot in Northwest Portland. “I actually think having 10 priorities is too much,” Ryan said. “Getting some real wins, seeing demonstrated success in Broadway Corridor, is the exact reputation uptick we need.”