Editorial endorsement May 2023: Julia Brim-Edwards is voters’ best pick for Multnomah County Commission

When the three candidates for Multnomah County Commission were asked at an endorsement interview how they would seek to improve the county’s response to homelessness, two of them spoke of largely staying the course.

Ana del Rocío, a former nonprofit executive director, said the county has a plan, but needs to better communicate it to residents – something she said she would aim to do upon getting briefed about it. Albert Kaufman, a digital marketing entrepreneur, said he would bring his collaborative approach to improving relations with the city. But he added that newly-elected Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, whose East Portland seat the candidates are seeking to fill, is already showing progress on that front.

Julia Brim-Edwards, however, dug in with details. The Portland Public Schools board member and former Nike executive noted the county’s lack of a homelessness plan and its poor coordination with the city. If elected, she said, she would prioritize the development with Portland officials of a comprehensive strategy that names specific goals, timelines, delineated responsibilities and ways to measure results. Brim-Edwards, 61, would also seek to coordinate program implementation to avoid overlap in services and budget dollars. And she emphasized the need to build a continuum that helps people living on the street move into temporary shelter and transitional housing where they can access services and gain stability to ensure greater success in permanent housing.

It’s this combination of strengths – detailed diagnosis, methodical strategizing and a persistence in follow-through – that makes Brim-Edwards the best pick for voters in District 3, which covers East Portland from about 33rd to 148th Avenues south of Interstate 84. Her advocacy locally and statewide on educational funding, passage of LGBTQ+ non-discrimination legislation and pandemic-related health initiatives reflect a few of her many contributions. And her extensive experience creating coalitions with unions, businesses, nonprofits and elected officials on every level of government has given her a potent network she can tap for assistance. Voters in District 3 should choose Brim-Edwards to bring that disciplined focus and record of success to Multnomah County.

Multnomah County could certainly use the oversight. Despite a lower profile, the county spends the bulk of local homelessness dollars and is responsible for behavioral health services – areas lacking structure, strategy and impact. Add in the failure to address longstanding messes such as the county’s neglectful oversight of its animal shelter, and it’s clear that the commission needs someone asking questions from the inside.

Brim-Edwards is already raising those questions on the campaign trail. She has highlighted the lack of a sobering center and deficiencies across the spectrum of behavioral health programs. She notes the need for targeted budget increases to the district attorney’s office to ensure prosecution of violent crime and repeat property crime. And she would press for the state to deliver a solution on the public defender shortage to ensure justice to the accused as well as communities needing cases to be prosecuted.

She’s proven her effectiveness perhaps most notably in her 2017 election to the PPS board, when the district’s dysfunction seemed irreversible amid continuing fallout over lead in schools’ drinking water; an employee exodus and a bickering school board that botched its most important assignment – hiring a permanent superintendent.

Upon her election, Brim-Edwards took over as chair and successfully landed the district its current leader, Guadalupe Guerrero, within weeks. She oversaw the development of a professional misconduct policy after The Oregonian/OregonLive uncovered decades of alleged misconduct by a former educator. And she has championed school bonds and levies and helped craft and lobby for a new statewide corporate tax that has transformed funding for K-12 schools across Oregon.

Certainly del Rocío, 36, has notched her own wins, including the expansion of school-based health services to the David Douglas community while she served on the district’s board. She also makes a compelling argument about the importance of having someone in leadership who, like her, is facing the escalating rent and affordability concerns that thousands of county residents are feeling. She’s poised and speaks eloquently about focusing on the root causes that underlie many of our crises. But her responses lacked the command and analysis of problems that Brim-Edwards demonstrated. She also noted that she “can’t do a great deal independently nor would I want to, but it’s my job to be the bridge, the convener, the communicator and really understand where the county is headed under the new direction” of Chair Vega Pederson for whom she once worked. That does not reflect the independence that the position demands.

Kaufman, 61, brings a strong commitment to climate action. But he views homelessness as a national or global issue for which the county cannot do much and, similarly to del Rocío, appears ready to simply demur to Vega Pederson’s judgment. Questioning is part of the job and helps the entire commission get to a better answer.

Voters in District 3 are the only ones to weigh in on the race. And unfortunately, if none of the three wins 50%-plus-one, the top two finishers will face off in November.

The county cannot wait. It needs a strong voice now to steer the commission toward pragmatic solutions and solid results. Voters in District 3 should show up for the county and elect Brim-Edwards as their commissioner.

-The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board