There’s a great thread over at BlueOregon today, where Mayor Tom Potter’s wife Karin Hansen jumps into a post about the Adams-Dozono poll, first to express her support for Sho Dozono. Then—when someone says Dozono is “someone with little experience in city government, and no clear grasp on policies or city functions. This has been my continuing frustration with the current Mayor as well”—she starts defending her husband’s body of work. (She also plays the sexism card when another commenter points out that her opinion might be not be the most credible, since she’s the mayor’s wife. Hmm…that’s sexism?)

It’s interesting for two reasons: One, the race between Dozono and Adams is, in part, a referendum on the job Potter has done. Potter has endorsed Dozono, and Dozono—thus far—has been short on specifics and long on wanting to listen to people and bring others to the table when he’s elected, which were very strong Potter campaign themes. (Thanks to his “few specific ideas that anyone can critique or use to forecast what he’d do as mayor,” we endorsed Francesconi.)

Also, Hansen trots out “a list of many of the accomplishments of the Potter Administration,” which—again, echoing the Potter theme—is short on specifics, citing things like “city-business relationship improvement,” “State-wide, nation-wide, and worldwide relationship improvement,” and “Day Laborer Hiring Center” (which isn’t off the ground, and has been rife with criticism that Potter screwed up city-business relationships by not bringing local business owners to the table).

Still others on the “list of accomplishments” point toward the committees Potter has created to make it appear like he’s doing something; Almost without exception, his committees either haven’t finished their work, or their work has yet to be implemented—I’m talking about the “Community Connect” initiative, “addressing racial profiling,” and the Independent Police Review outside audit.

The few things on the list that jump out as things Potter can actually cross off his list are “removal of PPB from the Joint Terrorism Taskforce,” “promotion of Rosie Sizer to Portland Police Chief,” and “City Charter improvements (three out of four ain’t bad).”

Her full list is after the cut.

Hansen writes:

The work that Tom Potter does isn't about building monuments, he is about building up people and empowering people. He believes, as I do, that we build buildings to meet the needs of our community in order to strengthen it. And, he is continually doing that. He doesn't believe in building things to say, "See. I did that."

Below is a list of many of the accomplishments of the Potter Administration:

Youth engagement (Youth and Children's Bill of Rights, Youth Planner Program, etc.)
Removal of PPB from the Joint Terrorism Taskforce
City-business relationship improvement
School districts relationship improvement
School-year funding rescue
State-wide, nation-wide, and worldwide relationship improvement
Neighborhood restructuring (Community Connect)
City Charter improvements (three out of four ain’t bad)
Day Laborer Hiring Center
Creation of the Office of Youth and Violence Prevention
Creation of the Office of Human Relations and Human Rights Commission
Overhaul of city employee practices (Bureau Innovation Project)
Improved budgeting process
Promotion of Rosie Sizer to Portland Police Chief
Portland Plan development
Portland Development Commission responding more to community needs (small businesses, and women and minority owned businesses)
City-wide drug strategy
Immigrant and refugee task force
Independent Police Review (IPR) outside audit
Addressing racial profiling
Creation of the Office of Film and Video
Creation of City Hall 101 to educate candidates and community members on how our city functions.

This is just a brief and incomplete list that doesn’t include all of the many political fires that have been calmed or put out. If you want to see more, go to http://www.portlandonline.com/mayor/index.cfm?c=46194