Friday, October 30, 2009

How Great is Mayor ADAMS?

State Headquarters

6601 NE Martin Luther King Blvd

Portland, OR 97211

Phone: 503-282-6588

Fax: 503-282-7266

Rogue Valley

33 N. Central, #303

Medford, OR 97501

Phone: 541-772-4029

Fax: 541-772-0355

Staff

Jo Ann Bowman

Executive Director

Rich Rohde

Medford Organizer

Ron Williams

Portland Organizer

Board of Directors

Bev De Leonardis

Gary Cobb

Steve Barnes

Kevin Foster

Shannon Olive

Smokey Donaldson

The Honorable Sam Adams

Mayor of Portland

1221 SW Fifth Avenue Rm. 340

Portland, Oregon 97204

Dear Mayor Adams,

The leadership team of the Portland Chapter of Oregon Action, wish to thank you for your courage, leadership and decisive action on the issue of Racial Profiling. We are proud and elated that our conversations with you led to an important and symbolic victory for people of color and all other residents of Portland. We are celebrating your decisive and historic act of taking direct, transparent and clear authority over the Portland Police Bureau on the issue or Racial Profiling. The historic aspect of the hearing was that never before this council hearing can any of our members recall such a direct and profound coming together of citizen advocacy and government authority. We are inspired by your leadership as evidenced by how your office made this very challenging and difficult issue a clear priority. We are also very pleased that within days of the plan coming to council for acceptance, the new policy directive from Chief Sizer was issued on business card issuance. This is a very important step toward officer accountability and we welcome the change in policy. We feel that you have shown, in very real terms that you truly value your role as a representative for all the people of the city of Portland.

Mayor Adams, September 2, 2009 was indeed a historic and transformative moment for the citizens involved, who describe your actions as “incredible” and “miraculous”. It was pure representational democracy. We are proud of your strength, courage and fidelity to the very principles that this country strong.

We extend our deep appreciation and heartfelt thanks to you for taking this issue so seriously and moving our concerns with the Portland Police Bureau to the full council examination, discernment and action.

We would also like to invite you attend our Oregon Action Celebrating Progress and be recognized among our honored guests.

Saturday, December 5th, 2009

6:00 -8:00PM

Ron Beed

Kevin Foster Maria Diaz

Jarrod Ackles Laura Camacho

Veronica Clark Shannon Olive

James Wilson Greg Benton

Erik Glass OB Hill

RD Hardesty Robert Marino