Multnomah County Commissioner Deborah Kafoury has working her way down the journalistic phone list this afternoon with a major, if expected, announcement. She called a little while ago to say she’ll be stepping down from her post Friday—complying with strict county election rules—so she can formally file as a candidate for the chair post once held by Jeff Cogen.
But while Kafoury was first the prospective candidate to declare interest in the job, which only opened after Cogen’s resignation, she won’t be the first major candidate to have filed. Former City Commissioner Jim Francesconi put his paperwork in today, announcing his intentions in a statement out yesterday afternoon.
Kafoury acknowledges that the timing wasn’t exactly what she’d hoped—she’d been working to hold onto her current job for as long as possible without having to give in to the grind of fundraising and fulltime campaigning that having a bonafide opponent in the field would bring.
“Obviously it’s been on my mind for a while,” she told me. “I still believe and have believed that the public is not clamoring for a campaign. But definitely the race having started sooner is making a difference.”
Francesconi will make for an interesting opponent. He’s already adopted the mien of an outsider looking to make waves and he’s already found himself on Kafoury’s home turf, dinging at last week’s first annual Street Roots Family Breakfast.
Kafoury, in any case, plans to run with her reputation as one of the county’s more influential leaders. She’s talking up her work helping along the Sellwood Bridge rebuild and the county’s efforts to find a new downtown courthouse. She’s also going to run hard on her advocacy for the homeless and the regional leadership role she’s grown more comfortable in since Nick Fish was moved from housing to city utilities and Cogen left in the shadow of scandal.
“Those are all things I want to continue working on,” she says.
Francesconi told the Oregonian today he plans to take on East Portland poverty and speak for the marginalized. The contrasts between the two should be interesting. Not everyone’s forgotten Francesconi’s remarks during a 2001 vote on whether to embrace Dignity Village. He said no, in part because he didn’t think a campsite was good enough or humane enough—an attitude that shares some startling resonance with today’s debate over Right 2 Dream Too.
Folks, it’s not camping that you need. What if I had come to that camp in November or December or January? Now, I know I am not going to be in your camp. I have to say, oh, that could be me or that can be my kids. That’s never going to be me. That’s never going to be my kids. Because I have got money. I have got access to that.
Kafoury says she’ll probably plan some kind of to-do when she files. She’s very aware that Francesconi brings real heft—and that his legacy in politics, raising more than a $1 million bucks in a losing bid to beat Tom Potter for mayor in 2004, means he knows people with deep pockets.
“It’s going be a real race,” she says. “I believe that.”
Sloppy seconds, again?
I won’t vote for quitters, anyway.
If either of them had any genuine dedication, they would finish the terms of their current positions, and wait until the other next election to run for some different office.
Two dislike votes for my comment above? Is it that you don’t agree with me, or you don’t care for quitters, either?
No comment? Cat got your tongue?
Seriously, why vote for them if they can’t stick around to finish what they start? How can we depend on them to stay if they get elected for this one? On second thought, maybe it’s for the best if they do always quit.
Well, I’ll give you a ‘dislike’ because I think Francesconi isn’t holding any office to finish a term of.
Francesconi was serving an appointed term with the Oregon State Board of Higher Education that was supposed to last until 2016.
http://www.ous.edu/state_board/members
http://post.portlandmercury.com/imager/occupy-this-page/b/original/10768966/98e4/boardmembers_jpg-magnum.jpg
He serves as one of 13 board members.
How will the board ever function if one resigns, I don’t know…
Is he required to resign? Has he resigned?
Okay, his law firm has him listed down in the fine print. Since it wasn’t at the top of the page, it appeared to not be current. Wouldn’t there conceivably be a conflict of interest, however? Furthermore, he certainly hasn’t done anything to improve educational standards at Portland State University or discipline the PSU Safety Patollers. Then there was the $80M cost over run on the PSU Recreation Center and the $100M cost over run on the OHSU Tram.
http://www.hk-law.com/professionals-staff/attorneys/fracesconi.php
What the fuck do those board members do, then, anyway? Attend snooty luncheons, drink champagne, eat caviar and donuts?
Let’s see him accomplish something substantial with the State Universities before 2016, THEN we’ll see what we want to let him tinker with after THAT.
As for the broad, good riddance to her too.
Another dislike. You like the fact that he doesn’t do shit?
How about having some accountability for Portland State University and all the other State Universities? If a teacher decides to abuse a student, the student has no recourse. Their complaints will be acknowledged, but the substance of their complaints will be ignored, and the decision will invariably favor the teacher.
Let’s see Jim Francesconi distinguish himself from the other lazy assed board members. He’s a fucking lawyer. Let’s see him set up an Ombudsman’s office that’s actually impartial; not like the brown shirt minion of der Führer of Portland State.
Dude, one of these two candidates will likely get elected to the office, whether or not you like either of them, and in the meantime you are doing nothing to further the conversation.
We only get to vote for who “they” tell us we get to vote for, so we might just as well simply resign ourselves to that fact; is that it? Then what’s the point of even bothering to read this article in the first place? Each of these two candidates is corrupt as hell. Fuck them both. Where were they when the Water Bureau had the $100,000,000.00, little, software glitch?
Oh, not their department? Where’s their leadership ability? What about the their First Amendment Right to speak up about this crap? Where does their loyalty lie; with other politicians?
The DMV of the State of Oregon, had the same software glitch that cost the same exorbitant amount, before the Water Bureau did. I suppose since the State got away with it, the City figured that they could too? Why would fucking software cost as much as it did? Who the fuck wrote it, anyway, Bill Gates, himself? Why didn’t the City Council make the scoundrel refund the money? Couldn’t the Engineering school at Portland State University have written a program for fucking free? Do you think Eric Sten ran off with the loot, or did he divy it up with the rest of the City Council?
How about Vera Katz giving the green light for building a city in the flood plane, while prohibiting any public input or debate beforehand? That was her last act in office. How big a kick back did she get in a numbered Swiss Bank account? I’ll bet she’s having one hell of a cushy retirement. You think the City Council didn’t get a piece of THAT action?
Further what conversation. I’ve been talking to myself here all along. What’s the readership of this electronic rag, though?
Deborah follows in her mother Gretchen’s footsteps, both of them elected to positions with the Oregon State legislature, Multnomah County Commission, and Portland City Council. Eric Sten worked for Gretchen at City Hall, before he got elected to the City Council himself. Jim Franscesconi was a City Commissioner during that same time period. It’s all incestuous as hell.
That was amazing. Like watching a stray dog fighting itself over a piece of garbage.
* wipes away tear *
It takes rare genius to construct such a mighty crescendo of confused nonsense.
Well done, OCP. Very well done indeed.
What’s a flood plane? Is that like a float plane?
Performance art is amazing when you find it in the most unexpected of places.
A lot of fans of graft here. Must be the beneficiaries of trickle down.
First off, the Mayor didn’t appreciate the esthetic of the seawall on the Willamette, and thought it would be fashionable to tear it down in order to make way for the river boat to dock there. Then, of course, they had to build a yacht harbor and a hotel.
Well, tug captains were shocked, because that location is right at the dog ear of the river, where the tow lines to their barges always snap off. It’s a wonder that a barge hasn’t broken loose of a tug, and slammed into the yachts, yet.
There was good reason for having that seawall, and why nobody was foolish enough to build down there between the Hawthorne and Ross Island bridges. Every hundred years or so, there is a massive flood.
Haven’t you all seen the old pictures?
There did use to be a gigantic scrap metal yard in that spot, but the flood water wouldn’t hurt that junk.
Tearing down the seawall for the river boat was just the camel’s nose under the tent. Nobody wanted that OHSU Tram in the first place, except for the elite doctors who practice playing god up on top of the hill.
Next thing you know, the camel stands up, and OHSU has it’s own city, except from all law other than it’s own Policy, as the Oregon State Legislature has legislated away it’s legislative authority to the Oregon State System of Higher Education, whereby all school Policy gains the full force and effect of law.
It’s not actually legal for the Legislature to let any other entity to assume it’s responsibilities, but so far, nobody seems to object, except for me.
In effect, this means that James L. Francesconi, as attorney, politician, and board member of the Oregon State Board of Higher Education, is likely already the defacto Governor General of the greater Portland/Multnomah County area. At least anywhere you see the banners of Oregon Health Science University or Portland State University.
Plain exempt!
Dog leg.