Murmurs: County Commissioners Weigh Needle Distribution Ban Near Schools

COUNTY COMMISSIONERS WEIGH NEEDLE DISTRIBUTION BAN NEAR SCHOOLS: Two Multnomah County commissioners have proposed limiting where to allow syringe service programs that distribute sterile needles, syringes and hypodermic devices, and dispose of used ones. The draft ordinance by Julia Brim-Edwards and Meghan Moyer asks to prohibit mobile SSPs from operating within 1,000 feet of K–12 schools. (The draft indicates a public body could make exceptions.) The issue has been an explosive one in Portland, where parents and neighbors of schools have long said SSPs pose risks to young students. The board is set to hear an initial briefing on the matter May 7 by state Sen. Lisa Reynolds (D-Portland). Reynolds might seem a surprising guest, given that many in Northwest Portland blame her for killing Senate Bill 1573, a statewide ban on needle distribution within 2,000 feet of schools and child care facilities, this past short session. (It died in Reynolds’ committee, though she said the bill as written did not have the votes to advance.) Reynolds’ role in the bill’s demise won her a challenge by Autumn Sharp in the Democratic primary. Brim-Edwards says the idea for the ordinance originated with Reynolds, who asked if the two could collaborate on a bridge proposal until the Legislature could come up with a statewide ban. “As a mom,” Brim-Edwards says, “I believe students should have a safe route to school and this is one step.”

MAC BOMBING INFLAMES MENTAL HEALTH CARE DEBATE: In February, law enforcement records show, Bruce Whitman wound up at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center following a suicide attempt. He was released weeks later, but police say they obtained a court order to take a gun from his possession, and Whitman was connected—not for the first time—to a Multnomah County mental health team. As before, intervention efforts did not work. By the early morning of May 2, officials said, Whitman, 49, had assembled 20 propane tanks and other incendiary devices in a rented vehicle and charged it into the Multnomah Athletic Club. Many of the explosives did not detonate, but Whitman perished in the act, and MAC leaders say flames and fire suppression systems did “considerable” damage to a portion of the building. It’s an outcome investigators say could have been far worse. But the incident at the large, upscale club in Goose Hollow—where Whitman once worked and police say he was known to harass members outside—is nonetheless inflaming an already-active debate about how and when the state should intervene in the lives of those deemed a threat to themselves or others. One key issue is civil commitment, a legal proceeding in which authorities force someone into treatment against their will. In a press release, Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez became the latest to share his take on the matter. His ideas are threefold. Two involve making it easier for families, neighbors and officials to force long-term outpatient treatment and intervention on “high-risk individuals.” Another is to expand the “red flag” safety net so officials do more than just remove someone’s guns: The system, Vasquez said, “has to involve active monitoring of those who have already demonstrated a violent fixation.”

CITY’S TOP PUBLIC SAFETY LEADER IS OUT: Bob Cozzie, the deputy city administrator who oversees all of Portland’s public safety bureaus and programs, is leaving the city on May 18. The announcement of Cozzie’s departure came from City Administrator Raymond Lee on Tuesday morning; he provided no insight why Cozzie was leaving, but thanked him for his service. Lee said he would directly oversee Cozzie’s portfolio until a new leader is found. Before serving as DCA of public safety, Cozzie spent seven years leading the Bureau of Emergency Communications. He’s worked in public safety for more than three decades. His departure seemed to come as a surprise to at least some city councilors. At a budget work session held just minutes after the announcement, Councilor Steve Novick urged Lee not to take on the interim role overseeing public safety bureaus. “I frankly think that you’d be out of your bully mind to do that, and I don’t think you have time,” Novick said sharply. “And there’s at least one person, and probably more, who all of us trust who I think would be an obvious interim person.” Cozzie will receive $275,000 in severance pay.

YOUTH CRISIS HOTLINE FACES CUTS: Weeks after a national study showed crisis hotlines reduced suicides in young people, a youth hotline could lose 8% of its funding if Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson’s proposed budget goes through. The zeroing out of what had been a $245,000 county contribution to Lines for Life would partially affect the military helpline the nonprofit runs, with a larger impact on YouthLine, its teen-to-teen support service. CEO Dwight Holton says the cuts would strain its ability to do outreach and engagement in the county—efforts which he says “translate directly” into contacts to the service, lessons in schools, volunteer recruitment, and more. As KOIN-TV reported earlier, members of the Oregon congressional delegation wrote county commissioners late last month to oppose the cut. For his part, Matt McNally of the county chair’s office notes the hard decisions inherent to patching a major budget shortfall. He tells WW the county faces significant funding cuts of its own and must now work under a new framework pushing state behavioral health funds toward particularly sick populations (think people charged with crimes who are unfit to stand trial). Amid these pressures, he says, a county health department review determined that call lines for veterans and youth were “very similar” to services already on offer from the county’s crisis line and Lines for Life’s statewide 988 program. Holton counters that these are terrific services, “but there is no substitute for a peer youth connection.”

BLAZERS ENTER PIVOTAL SUMMER: Last week, the Portland Trail Blazers conducted exit interviews after a first-round playoff exit. The team faces a fork in the road as new owner Tom Dundon presides over his first offseason and a surgically repaired, mid-30s Damian Lillard prepares to reclaim his throne. Despite Lillard’s return to the team and the team’s return to the playoffs, it has been Dundon who has dominated headlines. With a City Council vote looming over whether Portland puts itself on the hook to renovate Moda Center, Dundon will continue to dominate headlines over the course of the summer, as reports of his spendthrift ways in his early days managing the franchise will be held up against his attempt to reduce the size of the city’s budget by hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 20 or so years. The conclusion some people will reach is that Dundon doesn’t have enough capital to own and operate an NBA team in the long run. “I don’t know if I can remember a worse first month for an NBA owner, PR-wise,” says Sean Highkin, an independent journalist who covers the team through his news site The Rose Garden Report. “It’s open season on national podcasts to make jokes about things Dundon can’t afford to pay for.”