May 18, 2003
Two Days Until 26-48
First, to make sure I snag an item from Friday's Oregonian that I forgot to mention, Phil Knight tries to explain his gift of $50,000 to the "9-10-11" slate of school board candidates:
Their Ouiji boards can't explain to them why both Nike and I support the school funding ballot measures in Washington and Multnomah counties, yet I personally gave support to four Portland School Board candidates who are advocating administrative reform and are "antitax."
There are two issues before us on Tuesday regarding our schools. First is how much money our schools need in the short-term. Second is how that money is actually being managed.
Which may or may not be true. Problem is, according to critics of the "9-10-11" slate, their figures don't actually work, are misrepresented, or would require illegal activity on the part of the local school board. One is left to hope that Knight's company doesn't utilize such approaches in running its business.
Meanwhile, Friday's auction of Gary Trudeau donations didn't quite go as planned:
About 15 people showed up -- mostly to support the Multnomah County tax increase -- but none bid on the drawings.
"We're gonna regroup and schedule it later," said Milsom, who obtained the "Doonesbury" strips from nationally syndicated cartoonist Garry Trudeau. "Of course, I was hoping to watch billionaires like Paul Allen fight over the drawings, but it doesn't seem to be happening."
Some of those 15, it should be noted (and I can say this because I was there) were media. The above reporter for The Oregonian, a cameraman for KATU, someone from local radio (KXL, I think), and maybe one or two others. Auction organizers occassionally suggested perhaps one of them would like to bid on something, perhaps as a trade for their expensive equipment.
Rob Salzman asks, "What kind of signal does this send about public support of the tax for schools?" To be fair, this auction was not announced very far in advance, and with not all that much publicity. It also got moved inside, without any appparent attempt to direct visitors to Pioneer Courthouse Square to its new location.
In today's Sunday Oregonian, Steve Duin takes on John Lekas once again:
I don't know if Nike's Phil Knight -- who gave the Lekas slate $50,000 -- has spoken to Lekas about his resentment over the additional spending required to educate the poor and disadvantaged in this city, but Ann Nice, president of the Portland Association of Teachers, certainly has.
Lekas showed up at her office in April. After boasting he had a seven-figure income and would spend six figures on his campaign, Nice said, "He mentioned it was unfair schools in poorer socioeconomic areas get more money for staffing. I believe the way he said it was he didn't believe it was fair that his tax money went to these poor areas."
Duin also takes a detour through the now-infamous Lekas/herpes lawsuit. In and of itself, neglecting to tell a partner that one has a sexually-transmitted disease is not really something that necessarily reflects upon one's political performance (anymore than does oral sex in the Oval Office). Duin does, however, point out peculiar aspects of how the case was conducted -- as well as some other dealings -- that probably do bear a little more relevance to how one might behave in a position of authority.
Continuing through today's paper, there's a profile of St. Johns as it regards Measure 26-48:
"There's too many 65-, 75-, 85-year-old people, and their kids have grown up," [Betty] Dow says as Patsy Cline gently croons in the background. "It ain't going to make it."
Just down North Lombard Street, at the Vinyl Resting Place record store, self-described "vinyl magnate" Toby Tobiason has a different take.
"We've got to do something," says Tobiason, 58, who opened the store with his wife after moving from Alaska six years ago. Tobiason said he's unhappy with the Legislature "for not being able to get some stable funding for education."
Turning to the history of Measure 28, the article points out that "the precinct at the neighborhood's heart voted 50 percent yes and 50 percent no, the only one in the county to divide evenly."