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The chair of the council that governs Multnomah County’s vast system of federally qualified health centers was impeached this week in a majority vote of her fellow board members, the latest sign of discord on a small, all-volunteer group charged with overseeing the deployment of tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds.
Brenda Chambers had served on the Multnomah County Community Health Center Board since late 2024 and became chair in January this year. In a phone interview, she said her removal at last Monday’s meeting came after she made “missteps” regarding board bylaws early in her tenure. (At issue were proposals to change the makeup of certain committees, she said.) It was a mistake she said she quickly corrected. Nonetheless, she added, “there were people who felt hurt by it and wanted to impeach me.”
Chambers said she did not think her removal was reasonable, though she acknowledged that the matter was still raw. She also acknowledged there is a bigger story here. As The Oregonian reported last fall, the council has been hampered by a resignations amid bullying complaints against the previous chair, Tamia Deary, who in turn argued that what was actually happening was that Multnomah County staff were attacking the board’s independence.
Among those navigating this tempest was Chambers, a 63-year-old St. Helens woman who says she is studying for her bachelor’s degree in social work. She tells WW that late last year she was asked to consider becoming board chair by the interim executive director of Multnomah County community health centers. “He thought that I might be a good fit,” she said.
She was duly elected, she said, but some on the committee felt she was a puppet of an interfering county staff—a suspicion that reflected deeper simmering grievances. “They accused me of having an outside actor acting through me to change things,” Chambers said.
This, she added, wasn’t actually true, and she feels she made decisions independently. But now, her tenure on the board, which she says she had joined as a way to give back after appreciating care she received at a clinic, appears to be over. She said that another board member quit following her impeachment.
Deary, the past board chair, did not respond to a call and voicemail Monday, nor did the board’s listed vice-chair, secretary or treasurer. Reached by phone, one board member, Patrick Thomas, said “I don’t want to talk to you,” before hanging up.
Made up largely of patients and other everyday people, the Multnomah County Community Health Center Board is responsible for the governance and oversight of the county primary care, dental, specialty and pharmacy services, at stand-alone clinics and in schools.
The board is responsible for key things, from selecting and dismissing the health center’s executive director, to setting a strategic plan, to approving the annual budget. In 2025, county documents indicated that budget eclipsed $200 million.
The county did not immediately make a recording of the Monday meeting available. The meeting agenda had said that part of the meeting would take place in a closed executive session to allow the board to “consider the dismissal or disciplining of, or hear complaints or charges brought against” a public officer.
