JoAnn Hardesty

She's doing a fabulous job as City Commissioner, and we got to spend some time together today. She is completely re-shaping what happens when someone in Portland calls the emergency number, 911. Until now the dispatchers would send police, and when the call was about a Black person, a person having a mental crisis, or an unhoused person, that person might end up injured, traumatized, or dead. Jo Ann is in charge of Emergency Management, and she is completely revamping the procedures, so that there are medical staff, trained mental health professionals, social workers, and advocates for houseless people who can be dispatched. Police can also be dispatched, of course, but dispatchers have more than one choice available to them. The dispatchers are being re-trained as well, and there is every reason to believe that when this all goes into practice, Portland will become a far more humane city. It is a honor to know her and to see how she is implementing her campaign promises. She is what I wish all public officials could be: honest, caring, and reliable.