Election Day is less than seven weeks away, and one of the most consequential races on your ballot is for a job most Portlanders couldn’t describe: Multnomah County Chair. The incumbent isn’t running again, so no matter who wins, the county is getting a new leader and a new direction.
To help make sense of it, I sat down with someone who knows the job better than just about anyone. Deborah Kafoury spent 14 years on the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners, eight of them as chair. She guided the county through the COVID-19 pandemic, heat domes, wildfires, and more than 200 nights of protest. Before that, she served in the Oregon House, including as Democratic leader. She’s now chief of staff at Portland Public Schools.
Deborah and I worked side by side through some of the hardest stretches in this community’s recent history. We had a candid, funny, and useful conversation about what the chair actually does and what voters should be asking the people who want the job.
In this episode:
What the county chair actually does. Deborah’s shorthand for the difference between the two governments: the city builds physical infrastructure, and the county builds human infrastructure. She also explains why the chair acts as both a governor and a legislator.
Why management experience matters. Every county employee, all 7,000 of them, ultimately works for the chair. Deborah explains why voters should ask whether candidates have run a team before, and whether they did it well.
Her father’s rule for surviving public life: hire people smarter than you.
What’s waiting on the next chair’s desk: homelessness, affordability, and projected budget cuts. She also explains why she sees the budget as a moral document.
Working across the aisle. She tells how Republican partners made the Sellwood Bridge and the new county courthouse possible, and why the Republican House speaker threw her a baby shower.
The questions to ask at a house party. Deborah’s advice: ask about trade-offs, and ask candidates who they’ll spend their time listening to.
The red flags to watch for. Be wary of promises to end homelessness on a deadline, guilt-by-association attacks, and the idea that asking hard questions counts as getting things done.
Her new role at Portland Public Schools, and some good news: test scores are up.
Plus, In the News: Our trash news correspondent Elinor Jones turns her attention to a group that doesn’t get nearly enough attention: men. She covers robots that can’t walk downstairs, Mitch McConnell’s return to the Senate, and Pete Hegseth’s testosterone plan for the military. Find more from Elinor in the Portland Mercury’s Trash Report.
Your homework: Attend a house party, knock some doors, talk to your neighbors, make sure you’re registered, and get your ballot in.
Season 3 of SchmidtShow PDX runs through Election Day. If you like what we’re doing, subscribe, share this episode with a friend, and leave us a review.
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