- Another Believer (Wikimedia)
- A long way from Rosewood.
The team of experts and advocates responsible for keeping an eye on Portland’s federally-mandated police reforms keeps moving westward.
First, the excessively titled Compliance Officer/Community Liaison (COCL) team planned to set up offices at the Rosewood Initiative, a community center at SE 160th and Stark. The thinking was that the center is situated among marginalized communities, in a setting where citizens wouldn’t be intimidated. But it didn’t work. The Chicago-based team’s “ears on the ground,” former Oregon Supreme Court Justice Paul De Muniz, said he wasn’t even able to set up a computer in the space.
So De Muniz headed down the road, to a city-owned office space adjacent to the Portland Police Bureau’s Traffic Division headquarters. That raised concerns. The COCL team is supposed to be wholly independent of the police, and some members of a citizen board working with the COCL were incensed. The judge said it was the city’s responsibility to find him a better place, and Mayor Charlie Hales’ office stressed the situation was only temporary.
De Muniz left the COCL team in April, citing health reasons. Now longtime Portland advocate and activist Kathleen Saadat has taken his place, and the COCL headquarters are moving again.
Saadat tells the Mercury she’ll be moving offices into the Commonwealth Building near SW 6th and Stark. It’s the same building that houses Portland’s Housing Bureau and Office of Equity and Human Rights. It’s also a long way down Stark from the Rosewood Initiative, and even farther apart in terms of neighborhood dynamic. A glass-walled high rise might not be as welcoming as a community center, should people want to meet with the COCL team.
Saadat says she needed to get down to business.
“I decided we couldn’t waste any more time looking for a place,” Saadat said. “We have deadlines to meet.”
We’ve asked the mayor’s office about details of the lease, but haven’t heard back.