Voters could remake Multnomah County Commission, ushering in big political, policy changes

Next month, four of five seats on the Multnomah County Commission will be up for grabs amid an electoral anomaly that could lead to a significant realignment of commission politics and priorities.

The election is still more than six weeks away, and at least two of the contests’ outcomes are unpredictable at this stage.

But it’s possible the county’s top policy setting body, recently dominated by left-leaning progressives willing to give bureaucrats and nonprofit providers relatively free rein, will take a turn toward moderate viewpoints and more insistence that county agencies account for their spending and results.

Observers say that could impact crucial decisions in the coming months and years, including choices about the county’s Preschool for All program, homeless services spending and funding for prosecutors and jails.

The leadership changes will come at an already turbulent time for the commission, which has long been accustomed to toiling in relative obscurity.

Recently, however, rampant homelessness, public drug use, rising overdose deaths and untreated mental health crises have thrust the county commission’s actions and inaction into the spotlight.

Multnomah County’s underspending of Metro homelessness services taxes along with its sluggish rollout of a new drop-off sobering center and dismal ambulance response times have amplified critiques of its urgency and effectiveness.

Meanwhile, Chair Jessica Vega Pederson took the helm last year as the government’s top elected official, with the extraordinary political power that comes with the office, only to be beset by repeated policy and implementation errors and, critics say, a lack of clear vision.

The commission has three open seats this year, as a pair of its members have reached their limit of two terms and a third, Susheela Jayapal, stepped down to run for Congress.

Given the county’s glaring problems and lackluster leadership, a surprisingly slim number of candidates have stepped up to compete to take over.

Just seven county office seekers are considered serious contenders, given their past runs for office, campaign financing and other factors.

Those include partial-term incumbent Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards, a longtime Portland Public Schools board member and former Nike lobbyist now representing most of Southeast Portland; Gresham City Council member Vince Jones-Dixon running in east Multnomah County; and Shannon Singleton of North Portland and Meghan Moyer, a Southwest resident, who each have extensive social service and nonprofit sector experience.

Three others, similar to Brim-Edwards, have deep ties to and cachet among business groups that have long held sway at Portland City Hall and are among the most forceful advocates for aggressive action and change at the county.

Those are former Portland Mayor Sam Adams and boutique hotel owner and Old Town neighborhood association leader Jessie Burke, both vying for the county’s North and Northeast Portland district; and Vadim Mozyrsky, a former City Council candidate and west side neighborhood association head.

[Find your Multnomah County commission district]

“This is a big deal and represents the possibility of a radically different commission,” said Doug Moore, a political operative who spent years as the head of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters.

Moore now heads United for Portland, a business and industry backed political action committee that’s weighing whether to raise and spend big money on one or more of the commission races.

The county’s strict limits on campaign contributions allow individuals to donate a maximum of $568 to a candidate per election cycle, which means those running for commission seats will have relatively paltry funding to get their names, faces and policy stances before voters.

That could give groups willing to independently spend for or against a candidate outsized influence.

Jenny Lee, deputy director of the Coalition of Communities of Color, which represents more than a dozen prominent racial and social justice advocacy organizations, said experience and expertise will be crucial assets for anyone seeking a seat on the county commission.

“Some folks I believe are advocating to get at the underlying issues and get at the long-term path to the prosperity and well-being of the county,” she said. “Others are focused on a sense that there are quick fixes.”

COUNTY ALREADY SHIFTED

A palpable shift has already taken place within Multnomah County government since Vega Pederson, who spent six years as county commissioner before being elected chair, assumed the leadership reins 16 months ago.

She’s sought to cultivate a more collaborative relationship with elected county commissioners and city of Portland officials than her predecessor, Deborah Kafoury, did.

Vega Pederson has also proved at times willing to deviate from the strictly progressive policy stances she rarely questioned in her previous role at the county or when she served in the Legislature, primarily regarding shelter and street outreach services.

The commission, for example, provided millions of dollars for Bybee Lakes Hope Center, which county officials refused to fund for years because of its setting — the former Wapato jail in North Portland — as well as the fact that residents must prove they are drug and alcohol free and, in most cases, pay a monthly fee.

After months hemming and hawing, the county last year also allocated $21 million to construction and operating costs for two mass outdoor shelter sites managed by the city of Portland.

More recently, the county under Vega Pederson’s leadership said it would work with city officials to add 1,000 shelter beds and move half of those currently unsheltered off the streets by the end of 2025.

“We have to be expansive in how we’re addressing this crisis to make sure we’re moving every lever we can to change what’s happening for folks on the streets,” she told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “Shelter and temporary housing are absolutely a part of that.”

MUCH ‘NOT ACCOMPLISHED’

Yet there remains scant evidence of meaningful progress — and plenty of things to fuel voter antipathy and a desire to shake things up.

The county estimates that more than 11,000 of its residents are experiencing homelessness, with nearly half of them of them living unsheltered in tents and sleeping bags or in vehicles.

Meanwhile, its population has declined by 28,000, or 3.4%, since mid-2020, marking one of the steepest drops in population among large counties nationwide.

Open drug use continues to distress visitors to downtown Portland and kill a growing number of people who purchase cheap fentanyl. People experiencing mental health crises remain untreated as the county and other potential providers fail to offer enough therapists, treatment beds and recovery support.

Even Preschool for All, which Vega Pederson spearheaded as a county commissioner and which voters broadly embraced, has had a less-than-stellar launch, with the number of children served scraping the low end of the wide-ranging estimates that proponents pledged back in 2020.

“I think voters are at a loss as to why we have not accomplished more,” said Moyer, a policy director at Disability Rights Oregon.

She is facing Mozyrsky in the district that encompasses Portland’s west side and inner Southeast neighborhoods west of Cesar Chavez Boulevard.

“As somebody who works in human services and knows a lot about providing necessary support for people with disabilities, mental illness or addiction, I join that chorus of frustration of feeling like we are not fundamentally addressing the issues,” Moyer said.

APPETITE FOR CHANGE

While recent public opinion polls show that homelessness, crime, drug use and addiction are the top concerns for voters throughout the Portland metro area, the pessimism is particularly pronounced in Oregon’s most populous county.

In a DHM Research survey conducted late last year, 69% of Multnomah County voters said their county was on the wrong track, compared to 40% in Clackamas County and 34% in Washington County.

The two slightly smaller counties also appear to be faring better in the fight against the region’s daunting humanitarian crisis.

Clackamas County announced in February that it had reduced homelessness by 65% since the Metro homeless services tax passed. Washington County says it has effectively eliminated homeless encampments.

“People remain incredibly upset with the way things are going in Multnomah County,” pollster John Horvick said.

In two of the county’s commission districts, Brim-Edwards and Jones-Dixon are running on decidedly moderate platforms and face no serious opposition.

Brim-Edwards won a special election last May to represent most of Southeast Portland and in less than a year has emerged as the board’s most effective commissioner, according to multiple county watchers and political observers.

She has been unambiguous in her desire to reduce the number of tents and increase shelter options, stand up a sobering center and see more transparency around county programs.

Jones-Dixon, running in east county, has made a similar pitch to get vulnerable people off the streets quickly and into shelter and has also not shied from his work to increase funding for cops and firefighters during his time in elected office.

The first Black man to serve on the Gresham City Council, he has also leaned into what he describes as his “lived experience,” including the death of one of his brothers in a 2013 fatal shooting in Rockwood.

“I’ve lost family members to gun violence and I’ve been very close to folks that have struggled, or are working through, their own mental health and addiction challenges,” he said. “The county has a huge opportunity to help our community with that.”

The remaining two commission races are shaping up to be far more fluid, with Adams, Burke and Singleton competing in North and Northeast Portland and Moyer and Mozyrsky on the city’s west side.

United for Portland, the business-backed group, has publicly endorsed Adams, Burke and Mozyrsky.

A number of racial and social justice nonprofits, powerful public sector unions such as SEIU and AFSCME and progressive activists, meanwhile, are coalescing around Moyer and Singleton, a former interim director of the Joint Office of Homeless Services and longtime housing advocate.

It’s currently unclear, however, if they will provide their favored candidates with financial backing in addition to endorsements.

As for Vega Pederson, she said she will not be backing any of the seven leading candidates.

“It has a big impact if the county chair is trying to pick winners and losers,” she said. “I’m going to have to work with whomever gets elected.”

Kafoury, her predecessor, has signaled an interest in at least one commission hopeful. Records show she donated $250 to Singleton last month.

If no candidate in any of the races gets more than 50% of the vote, the top two vote-getters will face a runoff in November.

Felisa Hagins, director of SEIU Oregon State Council, said she hopes that demands for big change won’t come at the expense of county programs currently under fire but that show the promise of improving lives.

“That would be cruel and unconscionable,” Hagins said, urging voters to carefully consider the commission races in the coming weeks and months.

“I think that’s why all of Multnomah County has to make a clear choice about what kind of leadership it wants.”

Oregonian/OregonLive staff writer Austin de Dios contributed this report.

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh covers Portland city government and politics, with a focus on accountability and watchdog reporting.

Reach him at 503-294-7632

Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh

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