Murmurs: Preschool for All Director Resigns

PRESCHOOL FOR ALL DIRECTOR RESIGNS: Leslee Barnes, now the former director of preschool and early learning at Multnomah County, resigned July 31. Her resignation came less than two days after a WW story revealed Barnes’ preschool had collected $833,494 from the state to serve just nine children (“No Children,” July 30). Barnes owns North Portland preschool Village Childcare Enterprises LLC, which was funded by the state Preschool Promise program through the 2022–23 school year to serve low-income children. WW reported that the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office had flagged her preschool in an investigation of “wasteful” Preschool Promise spending. Preschool Promise is a different program than the county’s Preschool for All, which Barnes oversaw, but the revelation raised questions about conflicts of interest and her management of public dollars. On July 28, after WW sent county officials questions, the county opened an internal investigation of Barnes, overseen by Chris Neal, its chief operating officer. County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson says she has full confidence in Neal to handle the investigation, which has expanded to also encompass the county’s code of ethics and conflict-of-interest policies. It will be up to Neal, Vega Pederson says, to determine “whether an external review is the right use of county dollars.” But two county commissioners, Julia Brim-Edwards and Shannon Singleton, want an external investigation. The pair floated a draft resolution to the County Board of Commissioners on Aug. 4, arguing that a transparent and independent investigation would instill more public trust in Preschool for All and the county. “We expect that the Commission will define and approve the scope of this independent investigation,” the commissioners wrote in the Monday email, adding that they anticipate a budget modification to accommodate the investigation.

NONPROFIT’S APPLICATION REMAINS HIDDEN: Taxpayers wondering how Rockwood Community Development Corporation won $6.8 million in state money to buy a derelict Best Western hotel in 2021 are unlikely to see why officials bestowed so much money on a nonprofit with a history of poor public disclosure. The money came from Project Turnkey, a $125 million pot of cash doled out at the state’s behest by the Oregon Community Foundation. The grant made Rockwood CDC and its founder, Brad Ketch, major figures in homeless services. In his 2023 book, The Flourishing Community: A Story of Hope for America’s Distressed Places, Ketch writes that the money “signaled to everyone that we had arrived as a real player in community transformation.” But, as WW has since reported (“The King of Rockwood,” July 23), Ketch tussled with his own board chair over financial disclosures, causing her to resign abruptly in 2017. Around the same time, Rockwood also ignored entreaties from the Gresham Redevelopment Commission to prove its nonprofit status. Most recently, Multnomah County canceled all contracts with Rockwood, citing irregularities in its accounting. The incidents raise questions about what Ketch told Project Turnkey evaluators to convince them he should get millions to buy a hotel and turn it into a family shelter. But spokesman Colin Fogarty says OCF can’t release the application because nonprofit grantees “trust us with details that may or may not be public.” Fogarty referred WW to the Oregon Department of Administrative Services, which oversees the properties purchased through Project Turnkey. Spokeswoman Bryanna Duke says DAS “has the progress reports but does not have the details on the different applications.” Rockwood CDC didn’t return an email asking for the application. At least one Multnomah County commissioner says more disclosure is in order. “It is disappointing to hear that Project Turnkey applications are not being shared publicly,” Commissioner Shannon Singleton said in an email. “I am sure there are ways to redact any proprietary information contained in the applications and still provide the public line of sight into how these critical resources were spent.”

SWASTIKAS SCRAWLED ON JEWISH MUSEUM: Staffers at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in Northwest Portland arrived early on July 29 to find several swastikas painted on the outside of the building. The swastikas tagged the front door; others covered one of the building’s photo murals. Staffers took photos of the vandalism to send to city officials before cleaning it off. The incident was first reported by The Oregonian. “We have not had anything like this happen to us before at this location,” Rebekah Sobel, the museum’s executive director, tells WW. It’s the first antisemitic defacement of the museum’s property since 2021, when someone scrawled swastikas and white supremacist slogans on the Holocaust Memorial in Washington Park. Sobel says the museum needs to find its power in numbers. “We’re the only Jewish museum and we’re the only center for Holocaust education in the entire state,” she tells WW. “I really think that doubling down on bringing more people to the museum and having the space more activated, by encouraging people to come downtown, come to our exhibitions, come to our programs, and bring their friends, is what’s important. The more visibly activated our spaces are, the less we’re going to see people acting out here.” A Portland Police Bureau spokesman says a detective from the Major Crimes Unit is investigating the incident as a bias crime.

DOUGLAS COUNTY ELECTION CASE HEATS UP: Two new players have joined the dispute over May 20 election results for the Umpqua Public Transit District board (“Bus Project,” Oregon Journalism Project, July 9). Originally, the incumbent on the board for Position 4, Todd Vaughn, filed a petition in Douglas County Circuit Court, challenging his apparent loss to challenger Natasha Atkinson. The board also took the unusual steps of refusing to certify the election result and pay its share of the election’s costs, claiming County Clerk Dan Loomis overcharged the district. Vaughn initially filed his case without an attorney. But on July 22, Stephen Joncus, a Happy Valley lawyer who often takes politically charged cases, began representing Vaughn. For its part, Douglas County has hired Portland lawyer John DiLorenzo, who also has a long history of tackling political cases. “I have just been retained to represent the [Douglas County] clerk and the county,” DiLorenzo told OJP on Aug. 5. The parties are due in court Aug. 8 for a status check.