Complete Interview with Portland Mayoral Candidate Charlie Hales

Ed. note: In the current issue of Just Out, contributor Alex Bryce conducts a Q&A with Charlie Hales, in the first in a three-part series with Portland’s mayoral candidates. The complete transcript follows. Pick up the January 13 issue for our interview with Jefferson Smith. In-depth endorsement interviews will follow February’s introduction to Eileen Brady.

As Portland’s 2012 mayoral race heats up, Just Out asked the three main candidates to introduce themselves to the LGBTQ community. First up is Charlie Hales, 55, a Portland citizen for more than 30 years and electee to the Portland City Council in 1992. After nearly a decade, he left public office to promote streetcars throughout the nation and was the first to announce his candidacy in the mayoral election. –Alex Bryce

Charlie Hales. Photo credit: Marty Davis

Just Out: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Charlie Hales: After graduating from the University of Virginia more than 30 years ago, I moved to Portland because I had heard about a beautiful, friendly city in the far-off Northwest.

Portland is a place where one person can make a difference. I quickly joined the Hayhurst Neighborhood Association. From there I was elected to three terms as a Portland City Commissioner, helping to steer Portland’s growth successfully by building partnerships, trust and a common vision for all Portlanders.

As a city commissioner, I took on difficult and sometimes controversial tasks like fighting for a new training program in the Portland Fire Bureau, ensuring that underrepresented communities had the same opportunities as any other potential firefighter. I worked to create a more livable Portland and thousands of family wage jobs through projects like the Portland Streetcar and the revitalization of the Pearl District and North Portland.

And as a senior vice president with HDR Engineering, I took Portland’s best ideas for neighborhood livability and introduced them to the rest of the country. At the same time I was able to see what good things cities throughout the nation have done so that I could bring them back to Portland.

I am a regular volunteer with Friends of Trees and the Portland Parks Foundation, a father, and the husband of a remarkable partner whom I had the privilege to marry —a privilege and a right I hope to see extended to all committed couples within my term as mayor.

JO: Why do you want to become mayor of Portland?
CH: I love Portland. This city is a beacon of openness and acceptance. We have put real thought into how to grow as a city and as an economy while maintaining our small-city feel, our focus on livability, and a genuine shared sense of community.

Our city needs experienced, passionate leadership now. I am the person who can bring people together and get things done.

JO: How would you define the role?
CH: Unlike in other cities, the mayor in Portland is a team player. As a former city commissioner, I understand this form of government—it’s had a lot to do with how Portland became the incredible city it is. However our city works best when we elect the right kinds of people to the council, including the mayor.

Ours is a government of coalition in which all members must work towards consensus. It is up to the mayor, as first among equals, to set the tone that will allow for the city council to productively work together. The mayor is also the city’s chief advocate, and can use the public nature of this position to bring awareness to issues ranging from AIDS testing to the need for improved public services in East Portland. In this way, the mayor can bring us together as a people, to act in our best interest as a community. So, the mayor has to be both visionary and a consensus-builder, and has to have the leadership and experience to make it happen.

JO: What key skills will you bring to the role?
CH: Leadership and experience. I am the only candidate who has both public and private experience. I worked as a Portland City Commissioner for nearly 10 years, building our first streetcar, improving our parks, and supporting the arts and public education, so I know how to succeed in our unique style of governance.

I have also managed a business for nearly 10 years, and worked in other successful cities. From Phoenix to Minneapolis, I’ve studied what works and doesn’t work, and am ready to bring those lessons back to Portland to move us forward. One of my mantras is “have a vision and make the speech, but then go get it done.” I have a lifetime of experience in doing just that.

JO: What will be your priorities if you become mayor?
CH: My first priority will be to help our economy grow and create opportunity for all Portlanders. While the mayor of Portland can’t steer the national economy, there are real actions that Portland’s leader can take that make a difference here. I will create incentives for good corporate citizenship, will jumpstart start-ups and expanding businesses by infusing needed access to capital, and help realign our education system to support the next economy.

People say the mayor doesn’t have a role in our education system, and while the mayor doesn’t control the school districts, there is an important partner role that the mayor must play. For me, education begins before kindergarten. Early childhood development is critical and I will work to ensure that all Portland children have the opportunity come to school ready to learn. Nor does education end after high school. I will take the model I worked on while in the private sector of creating apprentice programs at high schools and community colleges and work so that every high school student has access to workforce experience.

As mayor, I will take back all city bureaus on my first day and will not assign them to commissioners until each bureau is focused on job creation, a dramatic reduction in overhead and inefficiency, and on equity in hiring and in service delivery.

JO: What makes you different from the other candidates?

CH: Leadership and experience. I’m the only candidate with both city government and business experience and I’ve got a proven track record of success in getting things done for the City of Portland.

What I’ve done for Portland is here for us to see every day. Folks can see, use and benefit from projects I spearheaded, whether it was building the airport MAX project (done 10 years ahead of time and under budget!), creating a wonderful new urban neighborhood in what we now call the Pearl District, or enjoying new community centers and pools in Gabriel Park, Mt. Scott and East Portland.

I know city budgets, and will go through ours line-by-line to make sure that it is being well managed, successful and administered equitably on behalf of all Portlanders. I have worked to make Portland the welcoming community it is today.

JO: What do you feel are the main challenges that the next mayor will need to overcome?
CH: Our economy needs to grow and build a prosperous life for all. We need to not only jumpstart the economy but have a long-term economic development vision that focuses on job creation and education. Our public schools are at a tipping point—renew them and Portland’s success continues; lose them and we will fail. And we need to make good on our commitments to our underserved communities. From sidewalks to neighborhood parks, we need to make sure that every Portland neighborhood is a complete and accepting community.

All of these priorities need funding, and that starts with carefully managing our city budget. I will immediately conduct a line-by-line review of each bureau budget and eliminate unneeded overhead and inefficiencies, putting the savings into direct services for the people of Portland.

JO: What is your vision for the future of Portland?
CH: My vision for Portland is a city in which everybody has a job, every student graduates from high school, and no parent or guardian is awakened in the middle of the night by a phone call saying that their child was harmed as a result of gang violence or hate crimes.

JO: How would you describe current Mayor Sam Adams’ time in office?
CH: Sam has been a tireless advocate for the LGBTQ community. His spearheading of the push to get trans-inclusive health care for city employees was cause for celebration. His determination to root out bias crimes, and to take practical steps to aide the community in that effort was laudable.

But there is no denying that the city has drifted over the last many years. Portland is now at a tipping point. We have put off the tough choices in reforming local government, building out the infrastructure and properly investing in schools.

Sam has been an advocate and an ally, and he had many good ideas. However, the time has come for a more decisive, action-based brand of leadership.

JO: How will you represent and work with all the diverse communities within Portland?
CH: I will represent Portland’s diverse communities in the makeup of my office and among my closest advisers. In addition, all of Portland’s bureaus must have a workforce that is a reflection of Portland today. We are very lucky to live in a city with community values of equality, respect and diversity. The city needs to do a better job of reflecting those values.

JO: Why should readers and, in particular, LGBTQ voters support you over your rival candidates?
CH: Just Out’s readers should know that I have stood with them before—on Measure 9, on domestic partner benefits, on making Portland a leader in civil rights and civic health. I have worked alongside the LGBTQ community for 20 years and I will be with you again, on marriage equality, in the fight against HIV/AIDS and in creating and sustaining a community of respect in our great city.

JO: How will you support Portland’s LGBTQ community if you are elected?
CH: As mayor, I will be an advocate for the basic rights of all of our residents. I will be an active part of the public education campaign to bring marriage equality to our state. I am proud to be married to the woman of my dreams. As mayor I will be an outspoken advocate for the freedom to marry for all caring and committed couples.

I will take public steps to combat HIV-related stigma. If folks are treated early a single treatment course could prevent multiple infection. And yet 1 in 4 people living with HIV don’t know they’re infected, in large part because of the stigma attached to a positive diagnosis. I can use the public nature of mayor’s office to bring awareness to this issue, and help direct the public towards available testing services.

I will work for universal access to testing: If everyone was routinely screened the number of newly detected infections in the U.S. could go down from 40,000 per year to just a few thousand. As mayor,  I will work to coordinate services between existing agencies and community partners, including service providers like the Cascade AIDS Project, communities of color and women’s health service providers to increase access to, and the frequency of screening for our most at-risk populations.

JO: Which LGBTQ public figure do you find most inspirational and why?
CH: What inspires me about the LGBTQ community in Portland is that it does not rely on any single figure to increase awareness. The LGBTQ community is about us coming together to stand up for what we all believe in, as a people.

From single, spotlight bringing cases such as James Lake Perriguey’s successful reinstatement of a student teacher (Seth Stambaugh) in the Beaverton schools to the thousands of volunteers and supporters who spoke out and got on the phones in support of marriage equality in the last year—the real heroes of the LGBTQ community are all of the everyday, real people who make up that community.

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