JVP was the worst possible County Chair imaginable. We will suffer the consequences of her reign of incompetence for decades to come. So arrogant, so disingenuous, such a grifter.
Chief acolyte of Deborah Kafoury, and she followed in her footsteps.
A few observations. One, Sharon has the guts to put out a plan and state “critique me, add to it etc.”. Two, her willingness to take on the non profits/NGOs who have operated without any accountability should be enough to convince anyone to vote for her. We have spent billions on a problem that has gotten worse, with little to no accountability. And finally, as a result of Sharon’s willingness to examine the nonprofits, the unions have endorsed her opponents. Of course they have, they want the status quo and the grift to continue. For me, the results of this race will reflect if Portland will ever change. Donate to her campaign and volunteer.
Just as a crack pipe is a platform for delivering opioids to the human body, Multnomah County seems to view itself as a platform for delivering tax dollars to nonprofits.
Sometimes a system becomes so dysfunctional that the best solution is to shut it down and rebuild it from the ground up—this time without treating nonprofits as the default destination for every new tax dollar. Oregon ranks near the bottom on far too many measures. Perhaps the deeper problem is the lack of intellectual and political diversity that comes with prolonged one-party rule.
Thank you. Without knowing all of this, I appreciate the chart especially, I began creating a spreadsheet to trace the organizations and following the money. We need leadership who looks into these details and she has my backing!
I support Sharon Meieran for Chair over the other candidates, Singleton and Brimm Edwards based upon who is supporting the other two. Knowing what I do about County staff, the very fact that the employee unions at the County support candidate Julia Brim Edward’s candidacy is a red flag, not a positive. Most staff were assembled during the terms of current Chair or her predecessor. They built the current County structure, built staff around it and managed the not-for profits and staff the County funded. The Chair, who acts as CEO for all departments. Other Board members have little say and if the Chair disagrees, sidelined. Their union endorsement can be viewed as an endorsement for the status quo. We need a chair committed to change, especially around homelessness and behavioral health goals and policies and practice. It will require new and supportive staff. We cannot afford existing status quo.
I support unions, especially at this time when AI threatens to sow chaos in labor markets. But we need a different model for public employee unions. We badly need a government that really works to solve the myriad problems we face in the areas of health care, housing and behavioral health, where Oregon and Portland especially falter. There needs to be a way to focus the public sector on solving these many problems with the assistance of AI, while guaranteeing job protection and likely, growth in employment. But that won't happen until government demonstrates it can grow efficiency through better information and transparency, clear goal setting and measurable results.
This suggests that many people and organizations profit off people in need, when it would be better to clear the slate and appoint a single housing czar to coordinate incoming funds (federal, state, and local).
The NGOs and Unions should be ashamed of themselves for creating this mess.
I don't actively dislike Julia Brim-Edwards, but the fact that she's universally backed by all the biggest Public Employee Unions is a big red flag for me. What props up the inefficiencies in our County Government is the inability and unwillingness to clean out the dead-wood employees that make it such an intolerable place for motivated, conscientious and hardworking employees to work. And the co-option of our City, County and State governments by the Public Employee Unions is one of the biggest contributors to that dysfunctionality, IMHO.
City and County voters seem to prefer political candidates who offer “happy talk” but who never deliver results based on their campaign promises. My 15 years living in the Pearl District provided an up-close view of the Homeless Industrial Complex and its continued failure to do anything effectively except gobs of taxpayer money. I can’t fathom why voters failed to elect Sharon as County Chair the last time around, so my fingers are crossed that voters will see the light and vote for someone who can finally make a genuine difference.
Of course Sharon Meiran is my first choice for Multnomah County Chair.
However, I am worried that having Sharon Meiran and Julia Brim-Edwards on the same ballot will split the reform vote and hand a victory to Shannon Singleton, the embodiment of county government by, of and for the "historically marginalized," the activists and nonprofits that champion and profit from them, and public employee unions. In that case, the commission would value the rest us only as a source of revenue to pay for the chair's mismanagement of the county's affairs. Business as usual, in other words.
Isn’t this election subject to ranked choice voting though? The key here will be to only ever rank the 1-2 candidates you can live with. In theory, this prevents splitting if used correctly (possibly the only upside of ranked voting), although I also worry most people don’t understand how to effectively use the ranking.
I am a supporter of Julia Brim-Edwards. She facilitated unanimous consensus on the Safe Schools Initiative which limits needle distribution around K-12 schools. She also has pushed back in the past about distribution of foil and pipes which are currently being provided. The future isn't about mismanagement in the county, but about changing the direction of government. Brim Edwards will act against fraud and other misuse of public monies, but the real problems are more fundamental and lie in faulty policy. Housing first, the decriminalization of narcotics, and common idea that society is to blame for individual behavior like drug or alcohol addiction. We also, like much of the country, has very poor civil commitment laws and a drastic shortage of acute care beds in short term psychiatric units. When poor policy is foisted upon government, you end up with mismanagement. Brim Edwards has not been party to that poor policy. She didn't sit on her hands while the county decriminalized narcotics and she doesn't believe in the illusion that everything will be better if we adopt a European model. Those ideas are failing in Europe, and housing first has been an enormous failure in the US. It is surprising to me that so many physicians have fallen for the theory that the cause of addiction is trauma, when it is clear that these are individual problems that have no unifying cause, but only individual causes. It is also alarming to me that we are so obviously undertreating people who have near death overdoses requiring Narcan, and obviously severe mental illness endangering themselves and others. The number one problem in Portland is rampant drug and alcohol and mental illness on city streets. I think people feel horrible seeing people maimed, out of their minds often, and publicly using illegal drugs. It also leads to a lack of confidence in public safety. Society has every right to expect that individuals act in a personally and socially responsible way and society should hold them accountable to public laws like no camping, no public disturbance, possession of narcotics, and distribution of narcotics. If they break the law, meaningful punishment is reasonable, after which, if their offense is related to mental health issues, then civil commitment for six weeks could be instituted. It is time to stop sorting people into categories like mentally ill or criminal and instead deal with both elements that are often the case. We need a complete redo of mental health policy and law in Oregon. Our laws are failing us.
I’ll 100% be voting for Sharon. As a nurse Im pretty annoyed my union, ONA, chose to endorse Brim-Edward’s over a respected doctor who does street outreach, works in the ER, and has advocated for common sense issues. One being fixing the AMR (ambulance) debacle JVP created by having unrealistic and untested staffing requirements. An issue that should be very important to anyone in healthcare as it delayed ambulance response times. Im not sure what ONA’s angle is honestly, other than maybe they also have a few too many DSA members in the ranks.
Brim-Edwards is also endorsed by the powerful, and incompetent, Portland Teachers Association, which is essentially a DSA arm. Meaning she will be pressured to support DSA policies. I was also disappointed in her when she had the deciding vote in appointing Lamar Wise, a union organizer, over Terrance Hayes for HD48, even though Clackamas Co unanimously voted for Hayes. Brim-Edwards knew she was wrong, but didn’t have the bravery to stand up to the union machine. This is what scares me about her.
On a more positive note, any one of them is an upgrade from JVP. But i believe Sharon is the one who will save Multnomah county. If we get her in and knock one DSA member off the City council, 2027 will be a good year for Portland and digging ourselves out of this hole.
The mismanagement of money is mind-blowing alongside the crumbling of the city of Portland.
Portland has been derailed long enough...let's get Portland back on track! Enough is enough!
You've got this Sharon Meieran!
The biggest mistake Portland made, in the last ten years was not voting for Sharon as County Chair….Please…let’s not make that mistake again..
JVP was the worst possible County Chair imaginable. We will suffer the consequences of her reign of incompetence for decades to come. So arrogant, so disingenuous, such a grifter.
Chief acolyte of Deborah Kafoury, and she followed in her footsteps.
I could not agree more on your assessment of these two feckless elected officials.
A few observations. One, Sharon has the guts to put out a plan and state “critique me, add to it etc.”. Two, her willingness to take on the non profits/NGOs who have operated without any accountability should be enough to convince anyone to vote for her. We have spent billions on a problem that has gotten worse, with little to no accountability. And finally, as a result of Sharon’s willingness to examine the nonprofits, the unions have endorsed her opponents. Of course they have, they want the status quo and the grift to continue. For me, the results of this race will reflect if Portland will ever change. Donate to her campaign and volunteer.
I voted for you last time and I’ll vote for you again! Hopefully enough other Portlanders have pulled their heads out in the meantime to join me.
51st in the NATION... The Bottom in performance... The Verdict: Oregon is broken...
Dr Meieran will make a difference
As we used to say when presented with tautology ( Voting for Dr Meieran):
This is a No Brainer
Just as a crack pipe is a platform for delivering opioids to the human body, Multnomah County seems to view itself as a platform for delivering tax dollars to nonprofits.
Sometimes a system becomes so dysfunctional that the best solution is to shut it down and rebuild it from the ground up—this time without treating nonprofits as the default destination for every new tax dollar. Oregon ranks near the bottom on far too many measures. Perhaps the deeper problem is the lack of intellectual and political diversity that comes with prolonged one-party rule.
Thank you. Without knowing all of this, I appreciate the chart especially, I began creating a spreadsheet to trace the organizations and following the money. We need leadership who looks into these details and she has my backing!
I support Sharon Meieran for Chair over the other candidates, Singleton and Brimm Edwards based upon who is supporting the other two. Knowing what I do about County staff, the very fact that the employee unions at the County support candidate Julia Brim Edward’s candidacy is a red flag, not a positive. Most staff were assembled during the terms of current Chair or her predecessor. They built the current County structure, built staff around it and managed the not-for profits and staff the County funded. The Chair, who acts as CEO for all departments. Other Board members have little say and if the Chair disagrees, sidelined. Their union endorsement can be viewed as an endorsement for the status quo. We need a chair committed to change, especially around homelessness and behavioral health goals and policies and practice. It will require new and supportive staff. We cannot afford existing status quo.
I support unions, especially at this time when AI threatens to sow chaos in labor markets. But we need a different model for public employee unions. We badly need a government that really works to solve the myriad problems we face in the areas of health care, housing and behavioral health, where Oregon and Portland especially falter. There needs to be a way to focus the public sector on solving these many problems with the assistance of AI, while guaranteeing job protection and likely, growth in employment. But that won't happen until government demonstrates it can grow efficiency through better information and transparency, clear goal setting and measurable results.
Lets start with a real plan for once.
Didn't read your comment before I made mine above. You are spot on!
This suggests that many people and organizations profit off people in need, when it would be better to clear the slate and appoint a single housing czar to coordinate incoming funds (federal, state, and local).
The NGOs and Unions should be ashamed of themselves for creating this mess.
I don't actively dislike Julia Brim-Edwards, but the fact that she's universally backed by all the biggest Public Employee Unions is a big red flag for me. What props up the inefficiencies in our County Government is the inability and unwillingness to clean out the dead-wood employees that make it such an intolerable place for motivated, conscientious and hardworking employees to work. And the co-option of our City, County and State governments by the Public Employee Unions is one of the biggest contributors to that dysfunctionality, IMHO.
We need Sharon Meieran, now more than ever.
City and County voters seem to prefer political candidates who offer “happy talk” but who never deliver results based on their campaign promises. My 15 years living in the Pearl District provided an up-close view of the Homeless Industrial Complex and its continued failure to do anything effectively except gobs of taxpayer money. I can’t fathom why voters failed to elect Sharon as County Chair the last time around, so my fingers are crossed that voters will see the light and vote for someone who can finally make a genuine difference.
Of course Sharon Meiran is my first choice for Multnomah County Chair.
However, I am worried that having Sharon Meiran and Julia Brim-Edwards on the same ballot will split the reform vote and hand a victory to Shannon Singleton, the embodiment of county government by, of and for the "historically marginalized," the activists and nonprofits that champion and profit from them, and public employee unions. In that case, the commission would value the rest us only as a source of revenue to pay for the chair's mismanagement of the county's affairs. Business as usual, in other words.
Isn’t this election subject to ranked choice voting though? The key here will be to only ever rank the 1-2 candidates you can live with. In theory, this prevents splitting if used correctly (possibly the only upside of ranked voting), although I also worry most people don’t understand how to effectively use the ranking.
I hope you are right!
I am a supporter of Julia Brim-Edwards. She facilitated unanimous consensus on the Safe Schools Initiative which limits needle distribution around K-12 schools. She also has pushed back in the past about distribution of foil and pipes which are currently being provided. The future isn't about mismanagement in the county, but about changing the direction of government. Brim Edwards will act against fraud and other misuse of public monies, but the real problems are more fundamental and lie in faulty policy. Housing first, the decriminalization of narcotics, and common idea that society is to blame for individual behavior like drug or alcohol addiction. We also, like much of the country, has very poor civil commitment laws and a drastic shortage of acute care beds in short term psychiatric units. When poor policy is foisted upon government, you end up with mismanagement. Brim Edwards has not been party to that poor policy. She didn't sit on her hands while the county decriminalized narcotics and she doesn't believe in the illusion that everything will be better if we adopt a European model. Those ideas are failing in Europe, and housing first has been an enormous failure in the US. It is surprising to me that so many physicians have fallen for the theory that the cause of addiction is trauma, when it is clear that these are individual problems that have no unifying cause, but only individual causes. It is also alarming to me that we are so obviously undertreating people who have near death overdoses requiring Narcan, and obviously severe mental illness endangering themselves and others. The number one problem in Portland is rampant drug and alcohol and mental illness on city streets. I think people feel horrible seeing people maimed, out of their minds often, and publicly using illegal drugs. It also leads to a lack of confidence in public safety. Society has every right to expect that individuals act in a personally and socially responsible way and society should hold them accountable to public laws like no camping, no public disturbance, possession of narcotics, and distribution of narcotics. If they break the law, meaningful punishment is reasonable, after which, if their offense is related to mental health issues, then civil commitment for six weeks could be instituted. It is time to stop sorting people into categories like mentally ill or criminal and instead deal with both elements that are often the case. We need a complete redo of mental health policy and law in Oregon. Our laws are failing us.
Julia Brim Edwards......shameless self promoter pandering to anyone who will help her eventually become the governor.
Sharon Meieran is the only choice.
I’ll 100% be voting for Sharon. As a nurse Im pretty annoyed my union, ONA, chose to endorse Brim-Edward’s over a respected doctor who does street outreach, works in the ER, and has advocated for common sense issues. One being fixing the AMR (ambulance) debacle JVP created by having unrealistic and untested staffing requirements. An issue that should be very important to anyone in healthcare as it delayed ambulance response times. Im not sure what ONA’s angle is honestly, other than maybe they also have a few too many DSA members in the ranks.
Brim-Edwards is also endorsed by the powerful, and incompetent, Portland Teachers Association, which is essentially a DSA arm. Meaning she will be pressured to support DSA policies. I was also disappointed in her when she had the deciding vote in appointing Lamar Wise, a union organizer, over Terrance Hayes for HD48, even though Clackamas Co unanimously voted for Hayes. Brim-Edwards knew she was wrong, but didn’t have the bravery to stand up to the union machine. This is what scares me about her.
On a more positive note, any one of them is an upgrade from JVP. But i believe Sharon is the one who will save Multnomah county. If we get her in and knock one DSA member off the City council, 2027 will be a good year for Portland and digging ourselves out of this hole.