Salvationinc interviews Phil Busse

5/4/04 The Castle, S.E. Portland, 8:50 p.m.

Interview with Phil Busse:

PB: I've learned that if I want to make it through this election I can't eat and drink at everything I stop at.

SI: (laughter, mumble, ha ha) Okay, this is your last one then...

PB: Well, yeah, I made it this far.

SI: Do you want some wine? Or water?

PB: Yeah. Water and wine would be great.

Phil goes on to show us his official propaganda and then explain how his
campaign has written over 100 pages on his plans for running Portland as
mayor, as well as projects for social change. Phil begins by talking about
the recent controversy with Mercury volunteers working on his campaign.

PB: It pisses me off because I really have been trying, I started this
campaign kind of whimsically but I've been really trying to push ideas
forward, and I feel like Willamette Week is really hell-bent on cutting
people down, and it's just like that's not what the city needs.

SI: Some would say that about your paper too.

PB: To some extent, I mean, I think we've definitely changed our tone. I mean maybe in some ways we're are, I think the difference is we are very willing to make fun of ourselves, at any time and, we stopped for the most part running really bad music reviews. Like, we don't like a band, we kinda just don't write about them. And I like that editorial choice we made because "Why cut someone down? Why don't we say, here's the great things in Portland, and encourage people in that way.

PB: Um, Pie?

SI: Yeah! Yeah! Sure Phil!

Phil goes on to explain how these pies are number 95 and 96. These are
fourth generation recipe "peaches and cream pie." He makes the filling ...etc...

SI: How would you compare Francesconi and Potter?

PB: That's an interesting two to pick (obviously thinking up an answer).

SI: Well we could have picked Spagg and Extremo, but...

PB: It's interesting to pick because they don't like each other, and actually I get along with all of the candidates... Tom and Jim, I've never seen exchange words... I think that they are just coming from different angles as far as what topics they care about. Clearly Tom [Potter] is bringing community policing, which is much needed to the debate. Jim has some interest in that, but his interest is more in business. So it's 'Are we dealing with the city as an economic entity?' or 'Are we dealing with it as a people entity?' I think that is the big comparison. As far as leadership skills I think they are very different. Jim [Francesconi] gets his ideas from a small group of people, and Tom is much more of a listener... I would have dropped out of the race if I had faith in one of
the main candidates. I am not trying to cut anyone down, those are the
differences that I see in those two. Their leadership skills, and what they care about.

SI: If you weren't in the race right now, and knowing what you know , who
would you vote for?

PB: Brad Taylor.

Phil goes on to explain that Brad Taylor is a clever guy, with good ideas.
The problem with his campaign according to Busse is that he hasn't figured
out how to best market his ideas, of which Busse says, "it's sad, very sad."

Phil asks us what we are, because "we're a thing, right?" Salvationinc
goes on to explain that we are a webzine, as well as an activist group.

PB: So why hasn't one of you run for office?

SI: I think we are trying to reform the entire system in general, we're not
very extreme... but the reason we've gotten so involved with the mayoral race is because we need a change now more than ever. Obviously the last four years have been a great disappointment and we figured the only way to get involved logically is to get involved where we are. We want change on a grand scheme. SI goes on to explain it's vast knowledge of "the system."

Phil goes on to discuss with Salvationinc the amount of money the "traditional" Francesconi campaign has raised. As opposed to his and James L. Posey's $10,000 each, and Potter's $60-70,000 Francesconi has raised $900,000. More money that all 21 candidates combined. Busse explains his own campaign strategy of finding people's point of contact with politics and appealing to that.

PB: If James Posey wins he will burn city hall down. I say that with admiration. I think his politician skills are not always firing at the right target. We were sitting up at the city club at our OPB debate and he announces for the first time publicly that we need to get rid of the Portland Development Commission. That's the worst possible place you could have said that... It's great ... do you really want to throw a hand grenade into the middle of this room and see what happens? I'm not sure [if it's] out of calculated risk or pure entertainment [but] he's shooting from the hip.

SI: As far as your campaign, is this the last time you are going to run for public office?

Phil explains that that there are three ideas he is going to continue working on regardless of the election. One is to create a used sports program for kids at Washington High. Another is creating a business incubator there with a theater, using some of the office space for writers to come in [and write].

SI: I used to work in that building, it's practically empty.

PB: They are talking about turning it into an all sports complex for the
neighborhood, which is fine but what about using the band practice rooms
for recording studios for up-and-coming bands. How cool would that be if
you were playing basket ball and you see some new band coming out of
Portland? That's a community center.

Phil goes on to say that Dave Allen from Gang of Four is excited by the
recording studio space. Art Alexakis from Everclear is excited about that idea of a business incubator.

PB: I would also like to work with North Mississippi Business District and make that an ethnically diverse business district. Those are the projects I am going to do. I think I'm going to do those and sample, and see if I can get this stuff done, and not have to be in office. An article I have not written but a have a thick folder on is, "Is City Hall Even Relevant?" I've been keeping a record of all this stuff that happens in the city outside of City Hall. A lot of it happens because of non-profits, and groups such as yourself. What has City Hall really done for us?

SI: What is the job description of a Portland Mayor?

PB: Portland has a really unique form of government. It's a leftover from the 1920's reform. Mayors in a lot of cities were downgraded, essentially, so you have a weak mayor. Here the mayor is essentially a city council member on steroids. You have two superpowers: one is you control the budget and the second is you have control over the two main bureaus. One is Parks and Recreation the other is the Police Bureau... Why would I be good at it? What I do best is I come up with ideas and I turn them into reality. One of the reasons I set up a platform like this (referring to his 100 point plan) is that these are specific ideas I can do. I know how to bring an idea through the bureaucracy. I did it when I was an attorney in the State of California, which is quite a heavy bureaucracy. Some of these ideas we've actually been able to do. The Holman building is a public boat house I've been working on the past two years. My other job is head coach of the University of Portland crew team. Three years ago we began working with the Portland Development Commission to have a privately
funded public boat house. It's going to open next fall and it is under the Hawthorne bridge.

Phil goes on to talk about plans to bring new revenue into Portland and
what type of economy Portland should work towards in the next ten years.

PB: It sounds trite at first but the film production industry. As crappy as "The Hunted" was it brought in 30 million dollars into the city. We are talking big money, Astoria still gets 30 people a month that come because of "Goonies."

SI: Are you promising us Goonies 2?

PB: (Ha ha ha) World cup soccer was a great idea last year, and that's new
revenue that comes in. I think that there should be an international cycling tour of the Willamette Valley. We have all the resources right here, and we have the cycling community. New York does it, Milwaukee and Wisconsin does it, we should be prime for one of the greatest cycling tours in the country. That's money, and it may not be a bulk of jobs but it's sexy, it's fun.

SI: That's the same reason people want baseball here, so that there is some excitement about the community.

PB: Right. We can accomplish that in other ways.

SI: We certainly don't want fucking baseball. Basketball is enough.

Phil speaks about partnerships between institutions. Jefferson High having
PCC students coming in and teaching, getting student teaching credit.

PB: Ethos, which is [a program] for music education, comes in and stop gaps in some of the music education. It makes Ethos more viable for grants, and it helps
release the burden on the schools. Those are the kind of partnerships I
think the city needs to do. This is kind of free stuff, and this is kind of "Pie in
the sky," but I think it's real, very real. We are one of the number one
cities in volunteerism. Why is the city not serving as the match maker,
the sort of Chuck Woolery of all this stuff. Let's bring the parties together.

SI: How have the Police responded to you?

PB: They loved the quiz I put together last month for Portland's most
rotten cop. Officer Jeff Meyer who took second, second to worst was at the
May Day demonstration this last weekend... I came up to him and I said
"Officer Meyer how are you doing?" (he knows who I am) and I said "How are
things going? Are you still harassing the Zoo Bombers? He sort of chuckled
a little bit. I've been very straight forward, with him and Commander Rosey
Sizer, who is the spokesperson for the police. She actually came up to me
and said "You know I saw you on channel eight today and I am very impressed." I said, "Does that mean I can count on your vote?" She said, "Of course not." I've been very straight forward with them, and I said I want cultural changes.
I think the benefit is that it would lessen friction between the community and the police, which is what I think they clearly want as well.

Phil expressed great concern about the Kendra James and James Jahar Perez shootings, and the way they were handled. His plan for dealing with these things is to support chief Foxworth and push for more training for officers, and community policing. He thinks every officer should be required to serve four hours of community service every month. The goal would be to integrate officers into the community, helping the community to understand the officer and the officer to understand the community.

SI: Who do you prefer, Sam Adams or Nick Fish in the race for City Council?

PB: Sam Adams. Sam Adams had to crawl out of a deep fucking hole to get my
endorsement. Four years ago I wrote an article about Vera Katz not paying
attention, or only paying attention to certain parts of the city. She's only paid attention to the Pearl district and PGE park. She's ignoring North Portland, N.E., and all these things. Sam Adams wrote me a letter asking, "What are you guys smoking over there at the Mercury blah blah blah blah?" That's the last thing we heard from the Mayor's office for two and a half years. 50-plus phone calls not returned. I was at the State of the City Address. The Tribune was reporting on one side, Oregonian was on the other side. The Press Security comes over and hands a cookie to the Tribune, walks around me, gives one to the Oregonian and I was like, "I want a cookie." Her response, "The Mercury doesn't get cookies from City Hall.

SI: Wow.

PB: My problem with that, is that it's arrogant. 'You criticize us, you don't exist.' So there's that attitude and some of the policies of Vera Katz, it's like, 'okay Sam Adams you've got a lot of fucking explaining to do,' and he has. He is a real genuine guy, and he's really nice, really down to earth. He has the eyes to see the problems that are affecting the community. In our endorsement interview I was really impressed by him.

Phil explains how Sam Adams' addresses the problem of people going into low-income areas, as occurs in North Portland. Such people buy up the property cheap, then turn around and selling it for more money. Phil quoted Sam Adams as saying "If we don't do something about this, it is going to ruin Portland in five years." Which leads to SI's next question.

SI: What can we do about gentrification?

PB: The Affordable Housing incentive would turn renters into owners. It would get rents over that first initial hurdle of providing the down payment for the house... As far as economic development there needs to be ownership incentive. North Mississippi... A bar, a brewery, 3 restaurants, a DVD shop they've all moved in. I know the owners of these stores, they are all friends of mine we all live in the neighborhood. The Fresh Pot guys live around the corner form there, and I mean that's awesome but they're all white.

SI: It's great yeah, and they hire all white people to work there.

PB: Yeah, and the problem is, if the City is willing to back ten-and-a-half
million dollar loans to Portland Center Stage then it should be willing to back loans to minorities. I don't think that's unreasonable. I mean, you're going to take a risk and you're going to show that you can actually create a neighborhood that's a business district that is ethnically diverse. There are empty store fronts left... I don't think it's absurd to say 'we will give you the loan but you have to take on a mentor to help you with whatever it is, marketing ...It's a strings attached loan but it would help develop a reality that will help you to stay there.

We discuss the South Waterfront development and the housing crunch for the
rich. Phil speaks of the organization and the different priorities in the City Council, and how ideas like affordable housing are there, but they do
not get pushed. He speaks of the lack of communication between City Council members. Some of the City Council members don't work together. Phil helped lobby for the reinvestment of the Affordable Housing Fund, which would give 30 million dollars to build low-income housing and affordable housing in all the neighborhoods. Phil's campaign received supportive responses back from three City Council members: Pamela Ericson, Randy Leonard and Dan Salzman.

PB: That's a majority right there. So I called them all and I said, "Do you
know you all support this?" and they hadn't even spoken to one another about it. I think the sentiment is there, the ideas are there, but the coalition is not there.

SI: What are you going to do about jobs?

PB: We need to rethink our economy, I know it's unpopular, but we need to think where are we going to be in ten years. We need to shift gears, we need to move towards another economic base.

SI: It's basically like lumber, you can only chop so much down and you're,
"What do we do now?"

PB: Yeah. Eugene did a great job 15 years ago. They realized the lumber
industry was going to collapse. They realized it's not sustainable so what
they did was they took Lane Community College and they provided computer
programing classes and retraining classes. Classes on how to become a
construction worker, or how to become a contractor. How do you take some
of the skills you have and expand on them?

SI: We all want better jobs.

PB: The priorities are all wrong here, the idea of moving big companies here is wrong.

SI: Yeah! Definitely! Here, here!

PB: You woo someone to come over to you to be your friend, how much do you
trust them to stay and not just go some where else? Big companies make the
economy too vulnerable. 85% of all the jobs in this city are with companies that provide employment for 20 employees and under. We need to support small business and we need to support them in a couple different ways. Streamlining the perfect process, stop nickel and diming the small businesses. Simple things, like a sandwich sign cost $35 a month in fees. It's stupid, instead of City Hall looking at small business as a vulture would look at it prey, they could say they aren't going to take 35 bucks from you, that money doesn't vanish it just doesn't go to City Hall, it goes to the city. We need case managers handle the processes of setting up small business, we need more support from the neighborhood associations. We need to break down the $100,000 into $5,200 block grants, give it to 50 companies with 20 or under employees to purchase a marketing plan, but
they have to buy it locally from a local advertiser. It will help them get off their feet, you've given $100,000 in grants to small business and you've given $100,000 into the local advertising market. You've also made 50 companies say, "Wow! City Hall Cares."

Phil talks about getting rid of the tax write-offs for big business. He
talks about City Hall's "bullshit, insulting" idea of building a Home
Depot on the east side off Burnside and MLK.

PB: How much faster can we bottom out our economy? Where are their headquarters? Arkansas or something like that?

SI: Probably right next to Wal-Mart's headquarters.

PB: Probably. I can't believe Vera Katz was publicly considering that idea.

SI: Yeah.

PB: For five years I've had a boycott against Starbucks. If I'm mayor and
I'm boycotting Starbucks that's huge.

SI: Hell yeah, ripple out.

PB: I only go to Fresh Pot, or Stumptown, or..

SI: Red and Black?

PB: Red and Black. I will only go to local coffee shops since I've boycotted Starbucks. Starbucks wouldn't be moving into the seven corners, or they might be, but people would be justified in their objections.

SI: It would at least be raising awareness, and that alone is what is
important.

Phil begins discussing the water prices and the project to deal with the
flooding of our sewers into the Willamette River.

PB: Why hasn't the mayor come out and said, "Hey you know what? You're
going to be paying $50 more a year on water, but someday you're going to
be able to swim in that river." I'll pay $50 bucks, I'd pay a hundred
dollars to be able to swim in that river. The mayor has not stepped up and
said the reason we are paying more money is a good thing.

SI: Not giving a big picture.

PB: Right, like the Multnomah tax. I'm damn near a socialist, but I was
kind of bummed out because I was wondering 'What is it going to be paying
for?' It would make it much easier to write that check if I knew what
this money was going to.

SI: There's some red tape out there that squanders it away. Hopefully some
bit of that money made it to people who need it. The education system is
definitely a foundation of criminal activity, there will be more criminal
activity in the future. People will have less interest and less of an idea
about what they can do to involve themselves with governing society.

SI: Who are you voting for in November?

PB: I imagine I am voting for Kerry, but I'm not that thrilled about it.
My hope was that Wesley Clark was going to make it through. Kerry's just
not, not.

Phil goes on to say he is big Bill Clinton fan, and that he worked on the '92
campaign. He likes Clinton's environmental record and the balancing of the budget.

SI: Are you a registered Democrat?

PB: I am a registered Democrat, but I am running as an independent.

SI: Who are you voting for in the primaries?

PB: I believe Kucinich.

SI: Good answer

Phil speaks about interviewing Nader and Dennis Kucinich. He thinks
Kucinich is too principled to be president, saying that we already have a
principled president, just one who is principled in a way we disagree
with.

SI: So why Wesley Clark?

PB: He's a really bright man, he could have clobbered Bush. His approach to global issues is what is needed now more than ever. We are fucked right
now globally in terms of what other countries think of us.

SI: Yes.

We ask Phil what the current mayor, Vera Katz, thinks of him.

PB...Vera Katz once walked up to me and called me a son of a bitch.

SI: We agree.

Salvation Inc. endorses Phil Busse for mayor of Portland.

Posted by Tyler at May 7, 2004 10:30 AM