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Seeks to represent: District 4 (Westside and parts of Southeast)
Age: 55
Pronouns: He/him
Job: Architect and owner of Design Department Architecture
Fun fact: He’s carried the same work bag for 37 years.
Have you eaten at the Northwest 23rd Avenue Bamboo Sushi or the Pearl District second location of Screen Door? Then you’ve dined in a room designed by Ben Hufford. The architect, the principal at Design Department Architecture, is also an owner of Pizza Jerk and June Bar. We asked him what he would do on the City Council.
Why are you running for office?
As a Democrat and small business owner, I know that Portland’s problems are real, but they aren’t as hard as our elected officials keep making them. Our best days lie ahead of us. But we’ll never change Portland if we don’t change who we elect.
As an architect, I create solutions to complex problems, make the most out of limited funds and work with diverse viewpoints to get things done. Professionally, I create spaces where people want to be. I will bring this creativity to the City by introducing effective policy, proactive solutions, and a community-focused vision for Portland’s future.
What are your top three priorities if elected?
1. Homelessness – We need to work off a by-name list of homeless people with identified needs and track progress nightly. We need safe shelters with mental health and addiction services. Progress should be posted online.
2. Public safety – we need more sworn officers on the streets and to actually enforce current laws. We also must integrate social services to increase non-violent response.
3. Housing – We need to work with the market instead of against it. I know firsthand that city bureaucracy and politicians have only made it harder to build as we need housing more.
How would you foster economic growth in Portland?
We need to change Portland’s image problem, which is caused by a reality problem. We need immediate action to improve our urban environment, including removing public camping, cleaning up our streets and neighborhoods. We need to bring ground floor uses back downtown to get eyes on the street and reverse the downward spiral in the core of our city.
We also need immediate action on housing production to reverse the housing shortage. The effects will be reduced homelessness, greater housing affordability, and economic growth both in construction and in helping to create a city where people can afford to live.
The city of Portland is facing budget cuts next year. Where would you cut money from the current city budget? Please point to a specific program, bureau or place.
Portland doesn’t structure accountability, tie funding to results, or measure outcomes. We’ve got to stop spending without a plan. I reject the idea of throwing money into a budget hole before we address our spending problem. We already have one of the highest marginal tax rates in the country, and nothing to show for it but people leaving.
Having a City Manager for the first time gives us the chance to rebuild from the ground up. Every city bureau could use a fiscal house cleaning. We need to seize the opportunity to get more out of what we are doing.
Where is the city currently wasting money, or is using money in a way you think is inefficient or unnecessary? Where is the bloat?
Based recent activity, the city is wasting money everywhere. The current City Council just rushed to promote six new “Temporary Deputy City Administrators” from within the existing bureau staff. The one-year pay range for each position is $204,000 to $307,000, with a severance pay of $209,000 each. This amounts to $2.5M for temporary employees working for a city manager who has not been hired yet!
We need common sense solutions to our problems, and the new City Council is a chance to reset our expectations.
What is the Joint Office of Homeless Services doing wrong, and what do you see as things that can right the ship?
The Joint Office is a public marketing plan with no product development. Since the 2017 founding of JOHS, the County seems to think their job is to spend money. Now that the yearly budget is $420 Million, they can hardly keep up. I am frustrated with the coupling of extraordinary spending with failing to reduce the number of homeless. We need to set metrics for the people transitioned to shelter and a separate goal of the people moved to stable housing. This will measure whether progress is being made regardless of inflow.
The City needs to assist housing production through zoning, tax incentives and permitting.
Is the tax rate in Multnomah County (with PCEF, Preschool for All and Supportive Housing Services taxes) too high, or at an appropriate level? If too high, what do you suggest be done about it?
When you have one of the highest marginal tax rates in the nation, it’s easy to say that taxes are too high. They are. But lowering them alone won’t spur investment and job growth until we focus on getting value out of whatever taxes are levied. Right now, we have the worst of both worlds.
Portland needs to deliver progress in the form of measurable, demonstrable results. We don’t expect perfection, but we expect something valuable for our efforts. Before we can assess tax levels, we need to stop unplanned spending, lack of accountability and failure to measure results.
What is the first piece of policy you would bring to the City Council?
I would respond to the shelter crisis as if it was a natural disaster—with urgent and temporary emergency management along the lines of a FEMA response. If a hurricane put 6,000 people on our streets, there would be an actual plan put in place to do something quickly.
My first policy is an emergency housing production strategy. This is published on my website and includes actions on permitting, taxes and regulation to immediately jump start housing development.
ALL housing production is important, and Portland can only effectively have affordable housing if we have enough housing.
Beyond policing, what measures would you take to improve public safety in Portland neighborhoods, and where would you get the money for it?
First, I support a comprehensive public safety system including hiring and training additional police, as well as expanding Portland Street Response. We should be recruiting police from Portland and incentivizing officers to actually live in the communities they serve. Public safety and the perception of being safe is also impacted by a number of environmental factors, including trash, graffiti, vacant storefronts and camping. Many of the areas that are considered quality-of-life issues in Portland are also public safety issues. The funds come from effective delivery of services within our current operating budget.
What experience can you point to that you believe would make you a prudent policy-maker on the City Council?
I’m a successful architect because I know how to deliver results and build places where people want to be. And to fix any of our problems we need to stop electing politicians who just want to BE something and start electing people who want to DO something. I am the ONLY one of the top 12 qualifying candidates for council from the private sector; the others are all politicians, political staffers, public employees, or non-profit staff.
I have set aside my architecture practice to commit to making measurable progress for the city I love, not just generate more talk.