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LONGTIME SENATE PRESIDENT PETER COURTNEY DIES AT 81: Peter Courtney, who served as Oregon Senate president for 20 years before retiring in 2023, died July 16 at age 81. Prior to his decades as Senate president, Courtney had served in the House and the Senate for 18 years. In total, his was the longest tenure in the history of the Oregon Legislature. Courtney was known as an irascible and iconoclastic figure, but also as thoughtful and strategic. Colleagues recalled him as a statesman who wore his love for the state on his sleeve. In a statement, Gov. Tina Kotek said: “I want to recognize President Courtney for being one of the most important architects of our state in recent memory. At his core, Peter believed that we need to take care of each other, live with compassion for our neighbors, and get big things done, together. These Oregon values will live on in his name.”
COUNTY IN THE MARKET FOR HOTELS TO HOUSE HOMELESS: Multnomah County is in the market to rent more blocks of rooms or buy additional hotels outright to shelter homeless people, according to a solicitation to owners obtained by WW. Real estate broker CBRE sent the letters on behalf of the county on June 11. “We are requesting your expression of interest to be considered for a room block agreement and/or purchase of motel properties within Multnomah County in order to provide housing for community members,” the letter says. Hotels with 40 to 120 rooms are ideal. Others are “less likely to be considered for lease or purchase at this time,” the letter says. Up to now, the county has rented more often than bought, which can be expensive (“Limbo Inn,” WW, June 16, 2021). It has purchased two hotels: a Days Inn on Northeast 82nd Avenue for $4.2 million in December 2020, and a Motel 6 on Southeast Stark Street in Gresham for $4.9 million in July 2021. In all cases, the Joint Office of Homeless Services “would perform a lease-versus-own analysis to determine the best course of action for properties of interest,” county spokeswoman Julie Sullivan-Springhetti said in an email. Hotels in Portland are selling at bargain prices, according to real estate firm Colliers, because demand hasn’t fully recovered from the pandemic and downtown riots. The 455-room Hilton Portland Downtown and the 327-room Duniway went to foreclosure auction in January 2023, but no buyers showed up. The pain has continued since then. In the 12 months through May, the 12-month average occupancy in Portland hotels was 61.6%, below the national average of 62.8% and well below 2019′s annual occupancy of 71.6%.
STATE UNDER FIRE FOR JAILING MENTALLY ILL: Lawyers on behalf of three people have filed charges of contempt in Washington County against Oregon State Hospital, accusing the state of violating a two-decade-old federal judge’s order that mentally ill people in jail be transferred to a hospital within seven days. As WW reported last week, Washington County Presiding Judge Rebecca Guptill said July 11 she would levy fines against the hospital and the state agency that runs it, the Oregon Health Authority, in two of those cases. The following day, lawyers filed contempt charges on behalf of a third person, Elsa Sacayon-De Leon. Her case is particularly concerning: Sacayon-De Leon, 22, was arrested in Washington County on charges she assaulted a close friend. Details of what happened were redacted, but court records indicate she immigrated from Guatemala and was living in her mother’s car at the time. A judge believed she was mentally ill and ordered her sent to Oregon State Hospital on July 1. But the hospital is full, and has been accepting new admissions on a first-come, first-served basis. In the meantime, her attorney says, Sacayon-De Leon’s condition has worsened. “Petitioner received no court ordered mental health treatment and [she] has decompensated as a result of [the state’s] continued disobedience of the court’s orders,” Ryan Lhotsky wrote. As of July 16, Sacayon-De Leon remained in Washington County jail.
FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION: WW took home five prizes, two of them first-place honors, in the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Awards, a national contest for alternative newspapers. Anthony Effinger won first prize for exploratory reporting for his feature on black-market psilocybin therapy (“The Mushroom Underground,” April 26, 2023). Nigel Jaquiss received a first-place award for his investigation of Oregon’s failure to provide rehab beds for people with traumatic brain injuries (“Free Fall,” Jan. 18, 2024). WW also received two second-place awards: one for Lucas Manfield’s profile of mothers recovering from fentanyl addiction, and another for Sophie Peel’s investigative reporting on the cannabis outfit La Mota, which led to the resignation of Secretary of State Shemia Fagan. “This brings the receipts,” a judge wrote.