Moving Man

[March 19th, 2008]

Last month, Multnomah County District 3 Commission candidate Mike Delman did a double-take when he learned who his new neighbor was.

Rob Milesnick, a candidate in the May 20 primary for the same board seat, closed Feb. 12 on a $786,000 three-bedroom house in the Southeast Portland district both he and Delman hope to represent.

Milesnick’s new colonial home is a block away from the house Delman’s owned for the past 20 years in the Laurelhurst neighborhood. To Delman, it’s a clear case of carpetbagging. (See Rogue, right, for an even clearer case of carpetbagging.)

“He doesn’t have roots,” says Delman, who does PR work for the Portland Habilitation Center and is a former chief of staff to ex-County Commissioner Gary Hansen.

County rules say board candidates must live in their district 18 months before taking office—in this case, since July 1, 2007. Milesnick, who won a key union endorsement last month from the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 88, says he qualified by renting an apartment on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard starting June 15, 2007.

This isn’t the first time residency has been an issue in District 3, which includes most of Southeast Portland. Current Commissioner Lisa Naito, who can’t seek re-election because of term limits, drew fire for moving across the Willamette to the West Hills midterm, a legal move once a commissioner is elected (see “Dissing Her District,” WW, Dec. 6, 2006).

Milesnick says most voters don’t care how long their commissioner has been around.

“I think residency requirements are there to help new people come in and get change and fresh ideas,” he says. “If they’d wanted people to live there for 20 years, they would have made that the residency requirement.”

Milesnick says his willingness to rent an apartment in order to gain residency shows his commitment to District 3. He paid $750 a month.

Milesnick says he moved out of his fiancée’s Northeast Portland home last summer and into the apartment above the Sapphire Hotel to qualify for the race.

The couple were married in August, when Milesnick says he was living away from his future wife, Elizabeth Tedesco, in the apartment. After only occasional sleepovers, he says, the two were reunited last month when they closed on their new home.

County Attorney Agnes Sowle says there are generally three indicators of residence: voter registration, where a person receives mail, and where a person’s vehicle is registered.

Milesnick changed his voter-registration to match the Hawthorne apartment June 19, 2007. He supplied WW with copies of his utility bills sent to that address. But his 2003 BMW is still registered at a Northwest Portland apartment Milesnick lived in until 2006.

That doesn’t disqualify him from running, however. When candidates file, the only thing the county checks is voter registration, says Eric Sample, spokesman for the county elections office. Milesnick’s qualified him.

Milesnick took a swipe at Delman and requested WW look into whether Milesnick fulfills the residency requirement. He questioned Delman’s motives for bringing up residency at all.

“I think it distracts from the issues,” Milesnick says.