Jake Thomas
jthomas@portlandobserver.com

Tom Markgraf has a long political work history spanning mental health services, transit-oriented public works projects including various MAX lines and the streetcar, and a stint as an adviser to Congressman Earl Blumenauer, D-Portland. Now Markgraf, whose family has been living in north and northeast Portland since the 1920s, wants a seat on the Multnomah County Commission.

Why are you running?
I’m running because right now in the county and the region there is a big need for more jobs. I’ve got a lifetime of history working to create jobs and I have a lot of experience with issues the county deals with. I’m the only one running who has ever lead an organization that has dealt with mental health. I was the board chair of Mental Health Services West, which was the largest health care provider in the state and it was the provider for the mentally ill in Multnomah County. I have a history working with the homeless.

In more recent years with my professional life, I’ve worked to build things like Interstate MAX, which put more minority workers to work than any public works program in history. The Sellwood Bridge is not finished. I was [Portland Congressman] Earl Blumenauer’s transportation advisor, and I have a history of getting federal money for local projects, and getting local projects ready for federal money. So I kind span the entire infrastructure spectrum.

When Ted Wheeler departed, there’s no one else in the county who is interested in that and there is no one else running with that kind of experience or interest.

How do you intend to create jobs?
By getting infrastructure projects going. You get the Sellwood Bridge going. You get the Columbia River Crossing going, which is a disaster. If you can get it going you can get 27,000 jobs, and those are family wage jobs.

How is the Columbia River Crossing a disaster?
Well the existing bridge is a disaster. It’s spewing pollution. You have cars stopped and trucks stopped beginning at two o’clock every afternoon. I live four blocks from the freeway, and I wash my house every year, and its a yellow house and it become indigo ink; it’s filthy.

The deal with the bridge is it’s got to be replaced. It was designed in 1907. It was designed for horses. My grandfather used to drive the streetcar across that bridge. If the project is able to go through the Washington Department of Transportation, they have contracting methods so we can get contracts with the community here. That’s a critical thing.

I don’t think that people realize that 40 percent of the building trades are unemployed and don’t expect any work in the next few years. That’s devastating, and if the elected leadership in this community doesn’t get it’s act together, they really are going to miss its opportunity to get money from the federal government.

What about Mayor Sam Adam’s concern that it will “cannibalize” federal funding for other projects?
It’s not. It’s a one time infusion of money from one pot of money. It’s on projects of national significance, which this is. That’s an understandable threat, but it’s been cleared up. Every bridge across the Columbia has been built with tolls. That’s a safe way to do it and tolls are critical to make sure you don’t blow out the urban growth boundary.

Congressman Earl Blumenauer didn’t ask for money for the CRC, what does that mean?
I think he’s sending a message to the region: Are you there or not?

Both Democratic candidates for governor want modifications on the proposal. What do you think of that?
I think they’re interested in the 10 lane bridge but they’re also running for office.

I think this whole process was started under John Kitzhaber. It went through a three year process with 39 citizens looking at every frigging thing. So you can start the thing over again, but what are you going to come up with? You’re going to have to replace the bridge, you’re going to have to have light rail, you’re going to have to have a big bike path, and you’re going have tolls. And you’re going to want to have a bridge that’s going to serve the community for 100 years. You can’t replace it again 50 years from now because then you’re going to really blow out the urban growth boundary.

Al Gore talks about replacing infrastructure on mature corridors. This is one of the most mature corridors on the West Coast. I keep hearing that you’re going to have people who are new to Oregon and you don’t have freeways. But that’s why people come out to Oregon because it doesn’t have freeways. Fix what you’ve got. Make it functional. Get light rail, and that’s how you address global warming.

Do you think we’ll have a 12 lane bridge?
No, and I’m always amazed when people say its this or that. You have the major, metro transit districts in a huddle trying to figure out what they’re going to do. I think they’re going to settle on a 10 lane bridge, but yougotta have light rail, and without that there’s no reason to build a bridge, and you have to have tolls to pay for it and dampen down demand.

Do you think the environmental justice impacts of the bridge have been adequately addressed?
I think the analysis that has been done has been huge. I think they’ve looked at a lot of those issues. What amazes me is that it’s been a six year process, and it seems like for the first three years you didn’t have the community paying attention while the project was the beating the drum saying look at this, and then all of a sudden you have interest groups, who haven’t done any of the analysis or even read the analysis, jumping on, and that’s scary.

What’s scary about it?
You have the biggest public works project in the state’s history and the most complicated, and you have people weighing in who are totally unaware of all the work that was done and just make statements that are irresponsible?

What’s an example?
If you look at the modeling that was done on the traffic analysis that was done by Metro and then you have Metro councilors saying the analysis was flawed and having him not even be aware that it came out of his shop. That’s scary. It makes you want to say to the councilor who sent it, “do you want to give back that $2 million because your agency performed the analysis?”

Has the analysis shown that there the CRC is going to help air quality in north and northeast?
You’re going to have to go back to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. It’s a huge complicated analysis. But the traffic analysis show that you’ll actually have fewer cars traveling across the bridge with tolls and light rail and a bike path than if you have the existing one. And then you have them moving, which causes less pollution compared to what we have today, which is gridlock.

The DEIS has been highly criticized. The Environmental Protection Agency criticized it in a letter.
Haven’t seen it, but it’s pretty typical that you’d hear something like that from the EPA. So I don’t know what the EPA said.

What role does the county have with the bridge?
It’s in district two, and if you look at the analysis the asthma rate are higher here. Kids are getting sick and we need to fix it. And whoever represents this region can pound the table and say that wee need this.

Let’s talk mental health. What do you want to do in that area?
If you look at mental health and you look at what’s going on at the county and in the region you see a big gap in understanding what’s happening. You see disfunction with the police, you see that we’re housing mentally ill people in jails, which is maybe the most expensive place to house them rather than housing them in places with mental health professional. That’s the humane way to deal with mentally ill and it’s the cheapest.

We need to train police officers. In the 1990s there were some shooting in downtown with Portland Police because they did not understand or recognize that they were mentally ill. And we trained them to recognize what was going on and it disappeared. We have training issues know. We have a variety of issues. And with the mentally ill, you have to have that. It seems like there is a plan to pull in Project Respond. Project Respond is a couple of mental health professional ready to be dispatched and that helped downtown a lot. So now, the Portland commissioner in charge of police is going to try and have the same reaction to help diffuse situations.

What do you think about the idea of pairing police officers with mental health workers?
I want to see their plan for that. Because what are they talking about? It’s a start. It’s probably a good start. I guess we’ll have to see how that works.

North and northeast Portland has changed a lot. Do you see the county as having any role in mitigating or easing that change?
When you say “ease” what do you mean? My family has been in this neighborhood since 1920.

People are getting priced out. This a concern that people have.
A big problem is moving county serves to where people need them. Rockwood is an areas that really needs county help, that really needs attention. One of the notions is to create the Justice Center area of Rockwood at a transit stop so you can create a transit-oriented development because right now the services are so bad and the poverty is so bad. I was doing work with Gresham a few years ago and to witness the housing stock and the desperate situations of low-income people, it’s amazing. It’s as bad or as worse as north northeast Portland in the 1980s. The crime rate has just gone through the roof, and there is fewer police per thousand than any other place in the state, and you don’t have the services to deal with that.

What work have you done with Earl Blumenauer that you’re particularly proud of?
Being his transportation lead really enabled me to understand how reauthorization works, and that’s the process where the federal government every six years unleashes a lot of money for transportation projects. You have to have transportation projects ready to go because that’s how you nab a lot of money. It’s very important to have that expertise. Having all the congressional staff and congressional members on a first name basis really helps in shepherding something through. Judy Shiprack was quoted in the paper as saying that relationship is going to be really important.

How are you doing on endorsements?
I’m doing swell.

Are there any you’re particularly proud of?
I’m really proud that Earl Blumenaur jumped on. Judy Shiprack, a lot of community members. When you’ve lived in a community your whole life. I think I’m the only candidate born and raised here. It does make a difference some other candidate discount that. I think it’s important to have been here more than four or five years. This community has come a long ways from when my family moved in here on Vancouver Avenue in 1920. You know, it was a different time prior to WWII. There was like 1,000 African Americans in the entire state and they were mostly farmers spread throughout the WIllamette Valley. And to know what happened to the community before that time and afterward.

Are there any endorsement you’re hoping to get?
Barack Obama would be sensational. You know you want everybody but there’s eight people in the race. It’s like musical chairs. You got to get to that chair first.

What are your thoughts on Wapato jail?
I was talking to two people who have pretty good ideas about that. Chip Shields has a pretty good notion for the state to buy it, and the state is reluctant because it doesn’t fit their needs or requirements. I’m not totally sold on that idea. I think the sheriff has a great idea. Each county is required to train their guards and each county has an uneven training procedure that should be more professional because prison guards need to be trained well because it’s such a dangerous situation for everyone. So he has a notion of why don’t we turn that into a training center? We’re spending about $600,000 a year to keep it moth-balled. What a waste of money. It would be better if we could find some way for it to make money.

Is there anything that you think former County Chair Ted Wheeler and former Commissioner Jeff Cogen have done well?
I think that Ted Wheeler has brought a lot of integrity back to the county. The sense of serving the community is back, and thats important. Growing up here, the county used to be the government that was the shining example that was when Don Clark was here. It’s luster has been lacking in the past few deceases, but its come back. But that’s important because the county serves the core, and to not see people at the top level working hard is scary. I think the commission works well as a team.