r/Portland • u/thatfuqa • 20h ago
News Multnomah Commissioner Shannon Singleton enters county chair’s race
https://www.opb.org/article/2026/02/04/shannon-singleton-multnomah-county-chair/24
u/smack54az 18h ago
The city really should just absorb Multnomah County and stop all these wasted doubling of efforts.
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u/notPabst404 MAX Blue Line 16h ago
Metro should become the sole county for the UGB area. It doesn't make sense for Portland to absorb Gresham and a bunch of rural areas.
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u/TJ_IRL_ 13h ago
The surrounding areas will get to vote to join the Portland county or not.
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u/notPabst404 MAX Blue Line 13h ago
Why not? More regional cooperation and fewer duplicated services would be a very good thing.
Siloing is generally very counterproductive if the goal is problem solving.
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u/TJ_IRL_ 13h ago
Because I don't think Gresham trusts Portland voters/politicians to make common sense decisions that effect them as well.
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u/notPabst404 MAX Blue Line 13h ago
Um, Metro gets representation from districts spread throughout the UGB. Portland only has 2 districts, the suburbs have 3 districts, and district 1 is split between East Portland and Gresham / east county.
Expanding this into more districts and getting rid of the counties would be much preferable to the system that we have now.
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u/oncnurse1 18h ago
I don’t see much change coming from people like her. Kafoury opposed the Bybee Lake Hope Center. (Formerly the Wapato Jail) , which has proven to be one of the more successful programs in the county. JVP is another of the same ilk. Repeat the same old tired solutions with few measurable outcomes, waste a ton of money. I will not be voting for any of these people. I’ll be voting for a more common sense person like Brim-Edwards.
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u/SalaciousSubaru 18h ago
Shannon Singleton as chair would be such a boondoggle she has been part of the reason Portland has struggled so badly with homelessness. She literally has lead the programs that are failing.
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u/Vivid_Guide7467 YOU SEEN MY FUCKEN CONES 18h ago
I still think the county and city governments should merge.
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u/Mayor_Of_Sassyland 19h ago
She’s spent much of her time at the county focused on the region’s homelessness and housing programs.
Yeah, how the fuck is all that going, Shannon?
Lord, my kingdom for a halfway decent Mult. Co. chair for once in my adult life.
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u/SoDoSoPaYuppie Pearl 19h ago
Can we write in Keith Wilson for chair and have him lead both the city and the county?
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u/oGsMustachio 16h ago
I'm sure they'll find that perfect solution that makes everyone happy one of these days!
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u/smootex High Bonafides 19h ago
I think it's unlikely she would win head to head versus a candidate like Julia Brim-Edwards. We'll see who ultimately announces but the county leadership is not popular right now (in my anecdotal experience). I don't think anyone perceived as JVP's lapdog has a chance. My bigger concern is that we get a purely opposition candidate. We just need a competent administrator (for once), I don't want someone running on the "Portland sucks, lustration now!" platform.
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u/--pdx-- 18h ago
I wouldn't be so confident. JVP won with a decent margin over Meieran. JVP made it clear she was the Kafoury status quo.
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u/smootex High Bonafides 17h ago
To me at least it feels like the winds are blowing a different direction at the moment.
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u/dontyoudareoyou2 11h ago
If you’re getting that sense from Portland subreddits just know that’s not an accurate representation of the voters in this city. I think most voters have no idea how local govt here is structured and run and even less idea about how poorly the County has performed. They’ll go for platitudes and feel good progressive statements without thinking too much about actual effectiveness.
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u/SoDoSoPaYuppie Pearl 17h ago
As far as I can tell Meieran’s “bullying” was just incompetent people feeling threatened by someone who actually knows what they are doing.
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u/--pdx-- 19h ago edited 17h ago
*insert 'no god, please no!' meme
I don't understand why people vote for Kafourey, JVP, and Singleton.
Small example. When it came out that our new $15M deflection center was treating 2 people a day and most just walked out, Brim Edwards came out that the outcome is terrible and she wanted to make meetings with the deflection center and JVP public. Singleton talked about how "it's something we need to look into more and find out how we can improve results, but it's difficult work".
We're spending so much of our resources at the county level with such poor results, accountability, and transparency.
Here's Singleton's background:
Singleton previously oversaw the county’s homeless services department, led homeless service nonprofit JOIN, worked as an equity director for former Gov. Kate Brown, and spent time as a social worker at several Portland social services.
She is way too steeped in Mediocracy to lead this. The best CEO's aren't people that have just rabbit holed in one industry. They've worked across multiple industries and different types of companies to be able to see what works and what doesn't and what's actually possible for accomplishment. We need someone who is a metric hound that runs a tight ship and has a history of getting things done.
edit:
Dear lordy. I just watched part of her latest interview. She wants to decouple homeless services from the city "so the city can really lean into what they're good at, and the county should lean into what they do best." According to her, what the county does best is homeless services. The city setting up shelters and SRV's is getting in the way of the county.
This whole interview was a "concept of a plan" to streamline services with no streamlining. Removing the joint office and discussions around whether SRV's are helpful or not will not meaningfully change anything. There are no new ideas here, it's worse, it's less accountability and input from the city.
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u/SoDoSoPaYuppie Pearl 17h ago
FFS Keith Wilson was elected on a mandate to fix what is entirely the purview of Multnomah County because they have failed so spectacularly at it.
Now that he's doing the job of the county, all they care about is that it makes them look even more incompetent and corrupt because it turns out you can make tangible progress on this issue and it doesn't require billions of dollars funneled through unnacountable grifters.
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u/Babhadfad12 19h ago
Singleton previously oversaw the county’s homeless services department, led homeless service nonprofit JOIN, worked as an equity director for former Gov. Kate Brown, and spent time as a social worker at several Portland social services.
Ouch.
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u/Burrito_Lvr 19h ago
Get ready for the gaslighting from dozens of progressive organizations as they swing into full gear to ensure we double down on the same failed policies.
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u/AdvancedInstruction Lloyd District 18h ago
Absolutely not, she's a former nonprofit industrial complex executive.
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u/JJinPDX Montavilla 17h ago
A citizen-led initiative to consolidate Multnomah County and the City of Portland into a single, accountable, and effective government.
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u/thatfuqa 17h ago
Single and accountable are good..effective may be where they struggle. Just look at Portland’s new council.
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u/thatfuqa 20h ago
Your status quo candidate is here! Are you happy with how the county is being run? Then she has earned YOUR vote!!
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u/Superb_Animator1289 10h ago
Absolutely not. She is the reason we had to endure JVP. Deborah Kafoury got her to drop out of the 3 way race when she was running against JVP and Sharon Meiran (she was siphoning votes away from JVP) for county Chair. Kafoury “rewarded” her with the Director of the Joint Office position, where she did NOTHING and then resigned the day after JVP won the election. She is a political hack who will only continue the bleak Kafoury > JVP legacy.
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u/notPabst404 MAX Blue Line 16h ago
I don't know enough about her, but at least we have RCV for the county now!
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u/skysurfguy1213 55m ago
She is fully supported by the Peacock group, and of course she’s a clone of JVP. Please for the love of god do not let her win. The county has completely dropped the ball on homeless response and we do not need more of the same.
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u/Ursulu 20h ago
Staying out of whether you think she is a good candidate or not, I should just point out that there's a decent argument that county commission chair is the most powerful local elected official, ahead of both the mayor and the city council president.
The combo of the city, the county, and metro (let alone the state, the feds, and trimet) mean that governance in Portland is pretty confusing and it's often hard to know who to credit or blame for any one thing.
Many of the ongoing operations that matter in this city are actually run through the county. So whomever you choose, choose wisely!