Date of Publication: Oct 9, 2026
People frequently ask me why things continue to get worse when Multnomah County has so much money from having one of the highest tax rates in the nation.
A big part of the answer lies in people running to get elected, rather than to do the job they’re running for.
Our political system incents sound bites rather than sound policy.
Every election season, political consultants package promises of accountability, collaboration, and change. Suddenly, elected officials who have spent years creating the dysfunctional system present themselves as the very people who can fix it.
Not coincidentally, the appearance of collaboration and promises of accountability reach their peak just as voter pamphlets and ballots go out.
And year after year, we elect people with new names but with the same endorsements, the same money, and the same talking points.
Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice - and many more times, shame on all of us.
Accountability isn't something you demand after the fact. It's something you practice when you have the power to act.
Over the past ten months, we've seen repeated controversies involving County leadership: hiring decisions, ambulance services, the Deflection Center, nonprofit contracting, jail closures, the Moda Center, return-to-work initiatives, and homelessness data and goals.
These are not isolated issues. They raise a common question about the responsibilities of elected officials who have the authority to oversee County operations, question spending, demand reliable information, and insist on results. And who either say nothing, or say one thing and do another.
Consider just four examples from the past ten months:
Animal Services: Sitting commissioners were informed of the hiring of an Animal Services director who did not meet minimum qualifications, through a process that raised serious questions. When an audit exposed the failures, those commissioners expressed surprise or denied knowledge. Where was the oversight when it mattered?
Deflection Center: Commissioners repeatedly approved millions in funding for a program that had failed to deliver meaningful results. Only after the failures became impossible to ignore did they join forces to announce a new performative resolution calling for change that will not fix the problem. True accountability would be having the courage to call for halting the program.
Ambulance Services: Commissioners spent more than a million dollars on consultants while failing to convene the expert advisory panel required by County Code—experts who could have provided guidance without that expense. They then pursued changes that threaten ambulance service levels, particularly in East County. Why weren't they demanding frontline expertise and effective oversight from the beginning?
Sunstone Way: After a whistleblower exposed nearly $4 million in questionable reimbursements to a County contractor, commissioners expressed outrage and reactively called for an audit. But the County already had access to the contracts, invoices, and spending information - of this and all county nonprofits. All county contracts are receiving inadequate county oversight, yet it took a whistleblower to trigger scrutiny for this single program.
These problems weren't new. The responsibilities weren't new. The commissioners were aware and spent all the money. And said and did nothing.
Repeatedly, in Multnomah County, the public discussion begins only after something goes wrong. If it begins at all.
Which brings me to the topic of being called the County's "Chief Critic."
I have in fact criticized the county. I challenged decisions, questioned policies, exposed irregular spending practices, and demanded action. All while problems were unfolding.
And to be clear, any time I criticized a policy, I proposed transparent, concrete, viable, efficient and effective alternatives, working with people on the front lines and other experts to build coalitions around solutions.
Critical thinking is critical for a reason. Even more so when policies being evaluated center on people’s lives and livelihoods.
I only wish that more of my fellow commissioners had spoken out to prevent crises from happening, people from dying, and money from being wasted, instead of performatively calling for accountability after the damage was done.
This points to perhaps the most important distinction between myself and the commissioners I am running against to be the next county chair: Accountability is about what you do when it matters, not what you say after.
We will never be able to change our results without changing the systems that produce them. And for that, we need an actual plan, not the promise of one. You can still see mine at fixmultco.com.
And it means remembering that public office is not a prize to be won. It is a responsibility to be fulfilled.
That's the distinction I keep coming back to. And it’s what I mean when I say that I am running to DO something, not to BE something.
I believe the people of Multnomah County deserve answers demonstrated through actions, not promises.
DON'T BELIEVE THE TALKING POINTS.
Instead, believe in the possibility of a County government that actually delivers. And in what we can accomplish together when we put people over politics, measure what matters, and have the courage to change how government works.
Sharon