Loretta Smith and Jo Ann Hardesty are running for a seat on the Portland City Council. (Mark Graves/Staff)

BY GORDON R. FRIEDMAN

The Oregonian | OregonLive

Regardless who wins, this fall’s lone race for a Portland City Council seat will almost certainly make the council more liberal for years to come.

Candidates Jo Ann Hardesty and Loretta Smith both lean left compared to retiring Commissioner Dan Saltzman, a moderate among Portland office holders.

With a Hardesty or Smith victory, the council will also gain its first black woman commissioner and its first female majority.

Their race is among more than a half dozen important contests, including a high-profile local ballot measure and an important if low visibility auditor’s race, that Multnomah County voters will decide Nov. 6.

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Portland City Hall. (Michelle Brence/Staff)

Hardesty, 60, a former state lawmaker and police reform advocate, is the presumed frontrunner after winning 46 percent of the vote during the May primary. She said in a recent campaign ad that she wants a seat on the council to bring “new voices” to Portland’s government.

Smith, 54, is a two-term Multnomah County commissioner who could not run again due to term limits. Smith, who for more than 20 years worked as a local aide to Sen. Ron Wyden, has said she is running to make Portland more affordable for residents.

The candidates have similar views on tackling Portland’s biggest problems. They both list as top priorities making housing more affordable and finding a better way to shelter the homeless. Both favor the creation or preservation of more housing affordable to people with very low incomes. Hardesty said the city and other local governments should better leverage publicly owned land to aid in that effort. Smith has said the city should buy more apartment complexes and manage them for the benefit of low-income renters.

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Thomas Boyd/2013

Multnomah County sold the never-used Wapato jail to a private investor, who has mulled opening the facility as a homeless shelter. (Thomas Boyd/Staff)

The two candidates disagree most on whether to use the Wapato jail, now privately owned, as a homeless shelter. That is based in part on their divergent views on who is homeless and why.

Smith insists the homeless must be sheltered at Wapato. She says most homeless people have addiction or mental health problems, and that they could get needed treatment there. Hardesty refuses to consider the idea of placing low-income people who are disproportionately people of color in a former jail. She said poverty, not addiction or mental health challenges, is the driving force putting people on the streets of Portland.

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Whoever is elected will have little control over housing, which is overseen by Mayor Ted Wheeler. Instead, the candidates’ day-to-day work will center on public safety. Wheeler, who controls bureau assignments, has said he will assign to the victor the Fire Bureau, Bureau of Emergency Management and Bureau of Emergency Communications, which runs the city 911 center.

Running those bureaus is no small job – lives depend on their performance – and the 911 center and the Fire Bureau both are working to improve. The 911 center has struggled to better its poor call answering times. And the Fire Bureau has worked to reinvent itself as firefighters increasingly respond to addiction and mental health crises rather than structure fires.

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Smith and Hardesty have both received negative press for questionable management practices.

Smith faced a county investigation over her treatment of staff and handling of her county credit card. The probe found Smith likely demeaned some employees and was a difficult boss. Smith has said she did nothing wrong and insisted – wrongly – that the investigation vindicated her. During an interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board she struck a more conciliatory tone and acknowledged she needed to “own” how others feel she has treated them.

Serious lapses in Hardesty’s management of the Portland NAACP chapter as its president, including the failure to secure board approval for a large payment to her consulting company, were first reported by Oregon Public Broadcasting. The radio outlet found Hardesty steered a $10,000 consulting contract to her firm, then failed to report the income to the IRS. She told The Oregonian/OregonLive that there were “no shady deals” during her time as chapter president and pledged to repay any taxes owed. She said her success at restarting the defunct organization and improving its credibility and financial health should not be overlooked.

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Measure 26-201: Portland retailer tax

(Drew Vattiat/Staff)

A measure backers say would promote equity and fuel the local green economy would establish a 1 percent tax on Portland sales of retailers with at least $1 billion in total sales and $500,000 of sales in city limits. Revenues would fund eco-friendly home upgrades and green jobs training for people of color and the unemployed. The tax would raise at least $30 million a year, according to conservative estimates.

Its backers are more than 100 grassroots supporters including nonprofits supporting people of color and clergy members. Supporters also include Commissioner Chloe Eudaly and Hardesty, the city council candidate. Opponents include the mayor and many prominent local and national businesses.

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Multnomah County Auditor: McGuirk v. Learn

The race for Multnomah County’s most overlooked elected position may be the closest on the November ballot. Jennifer McGuirk earned 43 percent of the vote during the May primary to Scott Learn’s 40 percent, putting them in a runoff race.

McGuirk has worked in the Multnomah County auditor’s office since 2012, serving as a senior auditor under County Auditor Steve March, who must step down after serving two terms. Her priorities include auditing jail conditions, housing services and senior care facilities, according to her campaign website.

Learn is a state auditor and was a longtime reporter at The Oregonian. His website says his audit priorities include county mental health and addictions programs, the district attorney and sheriff’s offices, and probation and parole.

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Measure 26-200: Portland campaign finance limits

If adopted, Measure 26-200 would establish strict campaign finance limits for Portland elected offices: mayor, city commissioner and auditor. The measure is similar to one adopted overwhelmingly by Multnomah County voters in 2016, but which was struck down by a judge this year as unconstitutional. Liberal-leaning groups that backed the county measure – and which back Measure 26-200 – say that ruling is incorrect, and plan to appeal.

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Gresham mayor: Bemis v. Cox

Gresham Mayor Shane Bemis is seeking his fourth term and is being challenged by Allen Cox, a political newcomer who owns a pressure washing business. Bemis was a Gresham city councilor before being elected mayor in 2006, and ran for reelection unopposed in 2010 and 2014. Cox told the Gresham Outlook he’s running because he believes Bemis shouldn’t run unopposed.

Also on the ballot for voters in Gresham, five candidates are also challenging incumbent Gresham City Council member Mario Palmero.

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Riverdale fire levy

Voters in the Riverdale will be asked whether to renew a five-year levy supporting their fire district. The levy, first adopted in 2002, charges 50 cents on each $1,000 of assessed property value for emergency fire and medical services. It would raise an estimated $370,000 to $417,000 each year.

-- Gordon R. Friedman

GFriedman@Oregonian.com

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