Facilitator pours gas on flame

Editorial

When the going gets rough, embattled institutions hire consultants to steer them through contentious meetings. It’s become the Portland way.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation considers an outside facilitator necessary to keep a lid on meetings of the Northwest Parking Stakeholders Committee. For the past two years, PBOT hired a consultant whose apparent main function was reminding when it was time to move to the next agenda item.

Last month, she was replaced by Dr. Christine Moses, a higher-powered personality who ran the meeting and would not proceed until all participants did deep-breathing exercises and agreed to abide by rules of conduct. Members were required to take turns reading aloud the terms for positive interaction.

Despite smiles and continual affirmations of “beautiful,” Moses delivered a haymaker. She said her rigid protocols were necessitated by “egregious” behavior she had observed on recordings of the past two meetings.

What was so intolerable? Who was involved? She refused to say.

Naturally, some wanted to know what she was talking about.

“That’s quite a claim,” one committee member said, “to characterize behaviors as egregious and not back that up.”

“We’ll get to that later in the meeting,” she promised.

Although Moses ran the meeting, she never answered the questions or gave clues as to the actions she found so objectionable.

One need not undergo sensitivity training to count the abuses of basic civility exhibited by this pedantic professional. Casting general aspersions toward a group without first speaking to the individuals involved, for one. Promising an explanation and not delivering or apologizing, is another. Most important her lack of humility in presuming to critique a situation based on secondhand reports was astounding.

We asked PBOT about the supposedly “egregious” behavior and were told it involved “eye rolling, sighing, scoffing, repeatedly talking over or not waiting for their turn to speak, antagonizing comments” and prejudging other committee members. PBOT also referred to an incident occurring years before the meetings Moses reviewed.

I have seen capable public participation consultants help communities caught up in dysfunction and strife. These consultants de-escalated tensions and spent time getting to know key players upfront.

But there’s a new generation of consultants bringing their own causes and dogmatism to the table, making snap judgments about situations they are unfamiliar with and disregarding the need to build trust before condemning.

Moses’s website describes her as “a biracial cisgender woman whose goal is to eradicate racism” whose practice is about “diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging coaching.” She is being paid $241 an hour under a $98,000 two-year contract approved behind the scenes without the SAC’s knowledge.

That process contrasts with transportation projects requested by the SAC that are slow-walked and delayed for years by complex procurement rules that supposedly protect taxpayers from corruption and incompetence.

PBOT typically brings half a dozen staff people, including high-ranking managers, to SAC meetings. Their time is money, and it is charged against transportation projects that could benefit the Northwest District. Consultant contracts further drain the community’s share of the pie.

If all this government-funded community engagement were producing excellent results, perhaps it could be justified. But it comes off as a show of force to bolster government employees who cannot command the authority their positions require of them. Respect is earned by showing respect. I’d like to see a roomful of consultants take turns reading that phrase aloud.

PBOT continually whines about its budget restraints. Transportation Commissioner Mingus Mapps bemoans the number of workers who could soon lose their jobs. They have reason to fear. The citizens of Portland have no reason to underwrite this kind of waste, public antipathy and bureaucratic protectionism.