Murmurs: County Chair Reverses Course
Read this great May 28, 2025 Sharon Meieran editorial! It is wonderful!
“A few months ago I asked how many times the Multnomah County chair needed to reverse course before she realized she was going in the wrong direction. Apparently, her answer is an enthusiastic "still counting!"
She just added youth mental health to the embarrassing list of critical decisions she's reversed herself on, including the ambulance crisis, sheriff department staffing, deflection center opening, deflection center programming, her signature "Housing Multnomah Now" program, Preschool For All, SHS spending...
What's ludicrous is that every time she's had to reverse course, the chair was given all the information she needed to make the right decisions, yet she unfailingly made the wrong ones. And each time she's finally been forced to admit she's erred, she's tried to proudly and awkwardly claim success in an obfuscation of words that are utter nonsense.
What's unforgivable is that each case involves harm to actual people.
In this particular case the chair is trying to hide the fact that she allowed her Health Department director to cut youth mental health in the first place. Then, after public outcry, that she still proposed the cuts in her own budget. A wrongheaded approach at any time, but truly unbelievable when we are experiencing a youth mental health crisis.
Another brick in the wall of the county chair's incompetence.”
~Theresa Griffin Kennedy
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