Who’s Hot and Who’s Not in Oregon Politics: Charlie Hales, Minimum Wage, Racial Profiling

Friday, July 24, 2015

Douglas Fasching, GoLocalPDX Contributor

Mayor Charlie Hales visited the Pope recently.

Every Friday, GoLocalPDX breaks down who's rising and who's falling in the world of Oregon politics. Check out who made the lists this week.

HOT:

Mayor Charlie Hales

How does somebody that never talks about climate change get a chance to meet the Pope and talk about climate change? Beats me, but it happened. Mayor Hales took time from his street fee crusade and developer-kowtowing to fly to Vatican City this week to hang out with Pope Francis and 59 mayors from across the country. They all signed something or other to put pressure on world leaders to do something. This all would be important if it wasn't also reported this week that Portland and the entire West Coast will be underwater sooner rather than later due to a massive earthquake. Anyway, if you see the Mayor walking around in a funny hat, you'll know where he got it.

Minimum Wage

Labor groups got most of what they asked for in the last legislative session. They got paid sick leave, a state-sponsored retirement savings plan and a ban on criminal history inquiries on job applications. Are they happy? Not really. They didn't get what they wanted most: a raise in the minimum wage. However, this is going to happen too. And soon.

This week saw the introduction of Raise the Wage Oregon, a coalition of more than two dozen groups including the Oregon chapter of the AFL-CIO, SEIU and the OEA. The goal of this group is to raise the minimum wage to $13.50/hour and give communities the ability to raise it even further.

The campaign will lobby for this is in Salem and if that doesn't work, they will sponsor a ballot measure to let the voters decide. Needless to say, the business community is not having a good week.

Oliver P. Lent

his is the first time a dead guy has made the 'Hot Column'. Mr. Lent founded the town of Lent which later, after annexation by the city of Portland, became the Lents Neighborhood. This week the City Council approved a resolution marking this Sunday, July 26th as Oliver P. Lent Day in Portland. This date is coincidentally the same day as the Lents Street Fair and Founder’s Day Parade. So go celebrate the legacy of one Mr. Oliver P. Lent in the most Portland way possible: With a huge beer garden and goats.

NOT:

The Port of Portland

Somebody wake up the longshoremen, there is finally something to unload. Terminal 6, the site of future riverfront condos, welcomed its first ship since early April when the shipping companies diverted their business to the other regional ports. This included Hanjin Shipping, the terminal's biggest customer. This week's visitor Westwood Shipping is the Port's last connection to Asia. They made up 1% of the terminal's business last year. That should be significantly higher this year. Five years ago, the Port paid $200 million to deepen the Columbia to attract new business. That seems to be really paying off.

Racial Profiling

Last week, Governor Kate Brown signed into law House Bill 2002 that bans racial profiling. No longer will the police be allowed to use characteristics such as race, ethnicity or national origin as the sole basis for probable cause. Law enforcement agencies must also establish a framework for reporting profiling incidents. A lot of credit also goes to Rep. Lew Frederick and Majority Leader Jennifer Williamson for their efforts to move this bill through the legislative process and the Fair Shot for All coalition who made this one of their priorities this legislative session.

Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins

We here at GolocalPDX realize we aren't the biggest fish in the media pond. We are the little web-based news outlet that could. That doesn't mean we don't deserve to get our questions answered.

In June, we asked Oregon Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins' office whether Presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders could be allowed on the ballot in Oregon as a Democrat since he is a member of the Independent Party. While the statutes are clear about party registration as a requirement for every other partisan office on the ballot in Oregon, they seem to be vague when it comes to the POTUS. The answer might not be easy, but it can be figured out in two months. Maybe it's us. Maybe we need to get some Willamette Week letterhead. In any event, let's hope there are no delays in ballot-related questions in the upcoming year. It's going to be a busy one.