Following hot on the heels of a surprisingly disengaged and disappointing speech by Mayor Sam Adams last week, Multnomah County Chair Ted Wheeler began a remarkable "State of the County" speech this afternoon with a Lincoln quote about adaptation to difficult circumstances: "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present," he said. "The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. The dogmas of the past are inadequate for the present."

- WHEELER: OPENED WITH CHASSE CASE
Wheeler had to cut $46 million out of the county's $1.2 billion budget for this year. But protecting vulnerable citizens and supporting children and families has been a priority, he said. "It not only makes good common sense for us to protect these citizens," he said. "I think morally it's the right thing for us to do."
"No crisis has focused my administration more than the death of James Chasse," Wheeler began in earnest, in stark contrast to Adams' speech last week, which made scant mention of mental health or police oversight. "We're thinking differently today because of the lessons we learned from that tragedy."
He referenced a mental health panel put together by former mayor Tom Potter to look into the problems raised by the tragedy. "We met one-on-one with many of our citizens who deal with mental health on a daily basis," said Wheeler. "We asked ourselves some uncomfortable questions. For example, is it okay that the largest provider of mental health services in our society are our prisons and jails?"
"There needs to be a place in our society where people can go in the midst of a crisis," said Wheeler, referencing his effort to open a new crisis assessment center by 2012.
Later during questions, city club member Ed Hershey, communications director of SEIU Local 503, asked Wheeler if he agreed with the city's contention—which will be argued in court next Tuesday morning—that the Chasse case should be tried outside Portland because press coverage of the incident may have biased potential jurors.
"I do believe you can find impartial people in this community on any number of subjects," said Wheeler. "I do believe that there are people in this community who are open-minded, and that's all I need to say on the subject."
He also said that the relationship between advocates for the mentally ill has shifted in the wake of the Chasse case. "We agreed that it was time to move on from an adversarial relationship and stop coming to loggerheads, and advocate for better funding at the state level," he said. More detail on the speech after the jump.
Wheeler said he plans to open a health and dental facility in the Rockwood community this summer. Then he referenced the Youthcorps program he put together with Mayor Adams this summer. He said he wanted to focus on creating more Sun Schools for kids, and on supporting businesses in providing mentor programs for kids. He said he needed the community's help in reducing domestic violence. "The chances are very good that everyone in this room has an association with somebody who is either directly or indirectly a victim of domestic violence," he said. "We need to speak loudly and let victims know that they're not alone."
Wheeler said the "values that guide him" are "being responsible and being responsive," highlighting pay freezes by county employees, and improvements to the library's online presence. The library journal just awarded Multnomah County's library system a 5-star rating, one of few in the nation, he said.
"We have to be honest about the challenges that we're facing," said Wheeler, calling for replacement of the East County Courthouse in Gresham, and the replacement of the Sellwood Bridge.
He paid tribute to his fellow county commissioners, and said he wanted to put a rest to the perception that there's a growing rift with Sheriff Dan Staton, who was also in the audience. He encouraged the city club to evaluate his idea to take management of the jails over from the sheriff's office.
"The jails account for the lion's share of our precious county resources," said Wheeler. "So even modest savings could make a big difference."
Wheeler said new seals for ballot boxes saved the state "millions of dollars" on new counting machines for election ballots. "Total cost? $32," he said, to applause.
He's looking forward to opening a full-service animal adoption center downtown.
Wheeler also focused on prevention as a cost effective way of dealing with health issues.
"If we can reduce obesity, we can both save money and save lives," he said. "We must organize a broad coalition of community partners in order to solve this problem. This will become a major focus of our work in the next year."
He plans a Multnomah County Prevention Plan to tackle that problem, and drug and alcohol abuse too.
The most important thing he's learned as county chair, he said, was "that we cannot become the most successful local government in Oregon without the support of the community."
After the speech, Wheeler faced several questions. Starting with John Branham, former city council candidate and development director for Portland Public Schools:
"Many in our community feel that the vast majority of the higher level conversations had in our community about education are frankly not even close to the caliber that we should be having," he said. "Rather than be talking about climbing Mount Hood, we should be talking about climbing Mount Everest. When and how are you and the other community leaders going to shift the conversation beyond programs toward the major structural reforms that we need to be globally competitive, so that we are as well known for education as we are for sustainability?"
"Education is not the school district's responsibility," said Wheeler. "It is every person in this room's responsibility. I believe that we're onto something in the form of our Sun Schools. So in part it's engaging community partners, looking to inspire kids to stay engaged in school because they want to have the skills to have that really cool post-secondary opportunity down the road. I think that's the basis of it."
Another city club member asked about Wheeler's view on kicker reform and revenue streams for the state budget.
"Fortunately as the chair of Multnomah County I have the luxury of speaking my mind on this subject so I will," he said. "We have a completely dysfunctional revenue system here in the state of Oregon. I'm not talking about the amount of revenues, but the structure. It's boneheaded."
Wheeler gave a couple of examples, for example, the rainy day fund. He also said "most economists can't find their way to the classroom," so it was foolish to have them making predictions about the kicker. He added that measures 5, 47, and 50, while he "knew why they were put in place," have had a "real cost," which got rid of $26million in County Revenue. "In this fiscal year we would have had over $100million more in revenue this year if those measures hadn't been implemented," he said.
"What else is being done to support mental health care in the community?" asked another city club member, in addition to the creation of a mental health crisis center.
"We have greatly stepped up our crisis intervention center," said Wheeler. "We have 24-hour crisis lines and 24-hour walk-in clinics now. We have now combined both basic mental health services and crisis services. One of the longer-term things that we should do is I think we should go back to a community-based model of mental health delivery."
There were no questions about the still-unopened Wapato Jail.