On Thursday morning, three Portland faith leaders paid a visit to the Portland Business Alliance (PBA) to deliver a letter signed by 25 of their colleagues, urging the alliance to stop opposing the Portland Clean Energy Initiative on moral grounds. But they didn’t get very far.
The Portland Clean Energy Initiative, formally known as Measure 26-201, is a ballot measure that would collect a one percent business license surcharge from businesses that make at least $1 billion annually, and use it to fund environmentally friendly projects like weatherizing homes, training people for green jobs, and upping the city’s use of clean energy. The PBA is one of the leading opposition groups to the measure.
Portland faith leaders hoped to persuade the alliance to stop opposing the measure. But the PBA refused to meet with Rev. Dr. Janet Parker, Rev. Solveig Nilsen-Goodin, and Rev. E.D. Mondainé.
“When I arrived earlier in the morning, the Portland Business Alliance office was unlocked and the receptionist spoke with me,” said Mondainé, a pastor with the Celebration Tabernacle Church and President of the NAACP Portland Branch, according to a press release from the Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility. “When I returned at 9:30 am with my colleagues to deliver our moral call, the office was locked and staff were hiding from sight.”
Security officers asked the faith leaders to leave the building. The faith leaders were joined by some members of the Portland Clean Energy Initiative campaign, who caught the interaction on camera:
The PBA is housed at the 200 Market building, which includes retail and restaurant spaces. The faith leaders moved on from the PBA office to a cafe in the same building—only to have security officers again ask them to leave the building altogether. They refused to do so, as they were paying customers.
The faith leaders never got a chance to deliver their letter, which lays out their reasons for supporting Measure 26-201 as a moral imperative.
“We urge you to reflect deeply on why you are opposing this community-generated solution that aims to address historic inequities, our city’s growing wealth inequality and the crisis of climate change,” reads the letter. “We, as faith leaders, stand with and stand for Portland’s frontline communities—communities of color and low-income communities that experience injustice and inequity first and worst.”
When reached for comment, the Portland Business Alliance provided the Mercury with the following statement from PBA President and CEO Andrew Hoan.
“No one should feel unsafe or threatened in their workplace. Once informed that the Clean Energy Fund Campaign was planning a ‘meeting’ in our offices without our knowledge, we took reasonable precautions for the safety of our staff. I take the wellbeing of our employees as my first priority, and reject any behavior that would potentially create an unsafe environment for both the staff of the Alliance and those who enter our office as welcomed guests.
I am personally open to meeting with any individuals and groups interested in a prosperous future for all Portlanders. We must rise above our differences on any single policy issue and find solutions that accomplish that shared goal. It’s not whether you win or lose in an election, it’s how you do it.”
Damon Motz-Storey, a spokesperson for the Clean Energy Initiative campaign, expressed incredulity about Hoan’s statement.
“It’s hard to believe that three members of the clergy wearing religious garb should cause PBA any safety concerns,” he said. “That sounds like a convenient excuse to not engage in face-to-face conversation. … These faith leaders wanted to deliver their message and letter in person, not be passed off to a phone line or email thread. It speaks volumes about how out-of-touch the Portland Business Alliance is with the people of Portland that they won’t even permit three clergymen to step into their reception area.”
In the video, it’s sorta hilarious to see the hot-shot Portland Elite Business Staffers cowering in the back of their office to avoid the threat of conversation with the Terrifying Theologians about Risky Moral Decision-Making. PBA is beyond pathetic on this! How weak !!
Wow. Afraid to talk to the community faith leaders. What is going on here.
PBA has a long history of turning a blind eye to the environment, health and welfare of the community and its members as it chooses profit over clean air, water, and social justice. Thanks to these faith leaders, PBA’s ethics are revealed.
“[W]e took reasonable precautions for the safety of our staff. I take the wellbeing of our employees as my first priority, and reject any behavior that would potentially create an unsafe environment for both the staff of the Alliance and those who enter our office as welcomed guests.” Can the Portland Business Alliance/Andrew Hoan please explain what how these three clergy members, including the Portland NAACP President, had the potential to create an unsafe environment?
Why do they think they just get to show up, unplanned and unannounced and demand a meeting? Without any evidence that they previously reached out and tried to request/schedule a meeting in advance, this is simply a political stunt disrupting an office. I don’t know of any office that would be cool if another group just showed up, unannounced, and demanded a meeting on the spot.
If the PBA showed up at a faith leader meeting and demanded time to speak right then and there, does anyone think the faith leaders wouldn’t just say “we’re happy to speak with you, but let’s get a date and time on the books and you can come back at that time”?
Just guessing here, but I suspect that the PBA receptionist is not unfamiliar with folks dropping off info and requests unannounced. Perhaps that even happens more than once a day — OMG, the Horror !!
In this case, the No-Doubt Expert Receptionist could have said something radical like, “I’m sorry, but President & CEO Andrew Hoan is not available at the moment. May I check and see if one of our other three-dozen staffers [yep, that’s the staff size] is available to speak with you for a few minutes about this Date-Certain Ballots-Flying Urgent Election Concern?”
It’s not Rocket Surgery.
And actually, knowing some of these Scary Faithful Folks, I am one who is pretty sure that they would absolutely respond politely to a respectful request (or even an angry request) for a brief immediate meeting during normal business hours, even if many leaders were in another meeting — someone would always pull out to help with an issue. They were not interrupting some special event at the PBA office, and not “demanding.”
You dramatically overstate the depth of their Terrifying Insult to Delicate PBA Sensibilities.
Please relax a tad.
Give me a break, Left Coasting, they were toting a giant toy envelope, and had photographers in tow – no doubt they knew what the response was going to be when they chose to go this route versus setting up a formal meeting like anyone would do if they were actually being serious. It was a stunt, not a legitimate meeting request. You think they wouldn’t have complained and feigned offense if they were pawned off to a staffer instead of doing a photo op with the Big Guy/Gal In Charge?
You’ve clearly never worked in a formal office before, as this type of shit simply doesn’t fly. This isn’t about the merits of their argument (I voted YES on the initiative myself, as I suspect you did too), this is about the fact that this was nothing more than a cheap publicity stunt.
Flavio, your indignation is phony.
PBA’s actions were far more of a stunt than you critcize the clergy for pulling. The org put itself into controversy. Of course they should expect some push back in a public way for their political expenditures and posturing on behalf of the super wealthy over the poor.
The only threat and disruption that PBA feared was to be revealed to the public and voters as the mendacious servants of the ultra rich that they are. And you know this.
These faith leaders used nonviolent methods to interrupt business as usual at the PBA office. Nonviolence does not seek to keep anybody comfortable. It’s designed to address injustice, whether racial, economic or environmental. Measure 26-201 seeks to address all those forms of injustice, while the PBA seeks to defeat that measure. Finally, nonviolence (practiced successfully by the civil rights movement under Dr. Martin Luther King) is “aggressive spiritually, mentally and emotionally”. See http://www.thekingcenter.org/king-philosophy#sub2. I’d like to see more such actions like this one, by people of faith and people of goodwill, working for justice in an increasingly unjust society.