Skip to main content
DANNY JACOBS STILL ON DUTY: Dr. Danny Jacobs, the former president of Oregon Health & Science University who resigned abruptly in October after a rocky tenure, remains a “special adviser” to interim president Steve Stadum, according to an internal email obtained by WW. Jacobs’ role seemed to come as a surprise to at least one staffer on Pill Hill. “A leader shared they saw Danny Jacobs listed as a special adviser to the president and wondered if this was correct,” the Jan. 30 email, headed “Leader Essentials,” says. “In this capacity, Dr. Jacobs is supporting both Mr. Stadum and the executive leadership team to maintain momentum and ensure continuity on top institutional OHSU priorities such as the OHSU and Legacy Health combination.” Morale cratered at OHSU under Jacobs’ watch, according to employee surveys. In late 2023, Jacobs handed out $15 million in bonuses, regardless of performance, to nonunion workers. Last year, he demoted the dean of the medical school, Dr. David Jacoby, saying he had mishandled the investigation of a doctor who allegedly took upskirt photos of women in class. Jacoby sued OHSU for $6.2 million in October, alleging he was scapegoated. Dr. Jeff Jensen, vice chair at the medical school and Jacobs’ loudest critic, says keeping him around is a mistake. “No one I know would think that having Danny Jacobs as a special adviser is a very good look considering how much work remains to repair OHSU from the results of his tenure as president,” Jensen said in a text message.
STATE OPENS PROBE OF LINCOLN HIGH HOOPS FRACAS: Turmoil within the Lincoln High School boys basketball team became public in December after four players filed a tort claim (a notice of intent to sue) with Portland Public Schools, accusing their coach of retaliation and discrimination. That coach, Heather Seely-Roberts, is the only woman coaching a 6A boys varsity hoops team in Oregon. She had filed her own tort claim notice with the district in October, alleging PPS failed to protect her from disgruntled parents and discriminated against her based on gender. Now, the Oregon Department of Education is stepping in, accepting an appeal filed by Greg Davenport, a Lincoln parent, against PPS. Davenport’s claim alleges his son and family have suffered retaliation from PPS administrators and Seely-Roberts. In a Jan. 27 notice shared with WW, Kay Vasquez, an administrative specialist with ODE, writes that the department will investigate a series of allegations that Seely-Roberts retaliated against a player and his parents. PPS has 30 days to hand relevant materials over to ODE, at which point the department will officially launch its investigation. It’s expected to issue an order within 90 days. “We urge that PPS and ODE take immediate action,” Davenport wrote in a statement to WW. He added that he hopes the two will “launch a real investigation” into Seely-Roberts. PPS spokeswoman Sydney Kelly says the district does not comment on legal and personnel matters. Spokesman Peter Rudy says ODE “is committed to ensuring that all children feel welcome and safe in school and are able to learn to their full potential.” WW could not immediately reach Seely-Roberts’ legal team for comment.
CITY TO FUND 50 TREATMENT BEDS AT BYBEE LAKES: Mayor Keith Wilson’s full-court press to reduce unsheltered homelessness has added to a cash infusion from multiple agencies for a long-standing nonprofit at the edge of town. Wilson announced this week that the city would fund 50 treatment beds at Bybee Lakes Hope Center, the homeless shelter at the site of the former Wapato Jail, as part of a 17-month pilot project to combat homelessness. The beds the city will fund, at a cost of roughly $1.5 million, already exist at Bybee Lakes; they just haven’t been filled because the nonprofit that runs the shelter, Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Centers, has said for years that it lacked the money to staff them. The city is now the second government in recent weeks to throw a lifeline to Bybee Lakes, which has long said it couldn’t survive without government subsidies. Last week, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson said the county was in talks to fund 100 of Bybee’s empty beds. “Our partnerships with the city of Portland and Multnomah County ensure that each bed is funded in full so our team can provide hope and care to the people who are staying there,” says Helping Hands spokeswoman Bethany Verrett. The city is applying the settlement from a years-old opioid lawsuit to fund the pilot program.
A SMALLER SPLASH: When the new Splash building on Northeast Sandy Boulevard opened late last year on the former site of a Pepsi bottling plant, it had 11 affordable housing units to offer a city in dire need of them. Not surprisingly, all 11 got rented in their first week on the market, according to Security Properties, the Seattle-based developer. Splash was supposed to have 44 affordable units, but during construction in 2022 the Oregon Department of Justice objected to how Security Properties planned to use a tax-exempt bond program and low-income housing credits to finance construction of Splash. The abbreviated version of events is that the affordable units were interspersed with market-rate units, making it difficult to determine how state money was being spent on common areas (“Flat Pepsi,” WW, April 13, 2022). The DOJ lodged its objection just before Security Properties posted details of its bond sale in October 2021. The developer had already knocked down most of the bottling plant on the site (preserving graceful arches on the building). Construction stopped for months while Security Properties searched for a solution. Sadly for low-income Portlanders, the only fix available was to slash the number of affordable units to 11, a fourth of the original number. DOJ’s intervention irked state Rep. Rob Nosse (D-Portland), who introduced a bill to allow the state to fund buildings with a mix of market-rate and affordable housing. It became law on Jan. 1, 2024. “It was a bureaucratic snafu,” Nosse said in an interview this week. “They wanted to do the right thing, but they couldn’t figure out how to finance it.”