On Wednesday, WW broke the news that Multnomah Commissioner Lisa Naito has been living outside her Southeast Portland district for nearly a year and a half.
(Click HERE to read the original story.)
There’s nothing in the county charter to prevent her from doing that, but it seems to fly in the face of the very idea of district representation. Commissioners are required to live in their districts for a year and a half before they get elected, after all. In neighboring Washington County, commissioners vacate their seats if they move out of their districts.
In a faxed response to WW, Naito says she “will never lose sight of the needs, the goals and the wishes of the people of Southeast Portland.”
So, dear readers, here are our questions for you:
Do you care that she no longer lives in the district she was elected to represent?
If so, should she resign?
Fire away in the comments section, if you will.
i love lisa!
County Commissioner political boundaries are entirely arbitrary and have no meaning for real people living their everyday lives. So, I have an idea: why don’t you focus on the issues people in Multnomah county face — and that Lisa Naito has done and is continuing to do a great job tackling? Since when does living on Ankeny make you a good policy maker and not living there make you a bad one?
I’m a SE resident. I care. I want her gone. Seriously, day to day living is one thing. Living out in Washington freaking County is a whole different ball game. Bye Bye Lisa. Thanks for the ten zillion condos (and preceding traffic tie-ups which are bound to follow)!
Moving is not an impulse (well at least to most of us) so for Naito to:
Come up with the idea of moving.
Decide to move.
Sell the home.
Purchase a new home.
The timeline what-ifs really bother me.
She was elected in Jan 2005. So was she thinking or in the act of moving while she ran? I realize it is within the rules but what a slap to the people of her district. (wait that is not right, a slap in the face of the people who live in the district she left)
‘Vote for me I will work for the people off my district
She needs to graciously thank the residents of SE Portland as she steps down.
Ian: as you point out, “There’s nothing in the county charter to prevent her from doing that, but it seems to fly in the face of the very idea of district representation.”
A link to the original story would have been helpful and conventional.
Mary, we’re still having trouble getting the InterWeb to come through the tubes in one piece. But, taking your advice, I added a link back to the original story.
Where’s the poll? Or are the comments it?
Lisa will have to show us folks who still live in SE and love it some excellent reasons to keep her on!
If she can’t make her case, she is OUT.
Lisa Naito does not care about the opinions of people in Multnomah county. She has made that painfully obvious to me by ignoring the letter I sent her and hanging up on me when I called once. Moving to a different county is a slap in the face to all those she represents and it is time to say good by to that woman. Her actions do not portray herself as an elected official who cares.
For the record, everyone who keeps mentioning her moving outside the county is incorrect. She still lives in the county, just outside her own district.
If she resigns though, what happens? Seems that I recall each commissioner has a “designee” to take their place if they resign. So the seat wouldn’t open for election or appointment – Naito would hand it off to a chosen successor immediately. Careful what you wish for.
really, what has she done????
She lives where I live now,but I can’t vote for her. It is an endrun around the requirement. She knew she was going to move when she ran for re-election. But then the commission women have been doing their thing for years and as with Diane their day is coming.
If Lisa has consistently shown neglect on the job because she lives in SW, that’s a different story. Give it a rest.
I think this is a ridiculous pole. Lisa is a wonderful commissioner. Portland is a small town and she listens and cares for her constituents. Where she puts her head to rest at the end of the day means nothing to me. We should be grateful for the years and years of public service Lisa has given to this community. WW get over yourself this is not news.
YES – she should resign! I’m disappointed there’s not a poll — seems the results of which would be news. I voted for, supported her candidacy in conversations with my neighbors and friends, and now feel disenfranchised and deceived by Lisa Naito. It was bad faith for her to move without disclosure and with so much of her term representing her former district remaining.
So, now that she’s been caught, Mean Girl Lisa Naito claims she will “never lose sight of the needs, the goals and the wishes of the people of SE Portland” from her new $1.3 miliion home in a completly diferent part of town?! Give me a break.
Whether WW readers agree with County Commissioners being elected by district or not, the reality is, they are, and they refer to that fact often when explaining their decisions or discussing their priorities (”my district…blah, blah, blah”). Her actions are a blatant disregard to the way the system is set up to work, and smack of arrogance.
And this after making a mockery of women in government with her obstructionist Mean Girl antics for the past 2 1/2 years?! She ought to be toast.
Lisa lived in her district for many years before she moved. She started representing a portion of the district in Salem in the late 80s if I’m not mistaken. She not only lived here for a good portion of her life, her jobs required that she spend significant time in her district with her constituents. I know that Lisa was diligent in performing her duties as a public servant and I know that she considered intimate knowledge of her district and its citizens to be one of her most important duties. Lisa knows this district better than 95% of the people who live in it. She could live out of the district for 20 years and still know it better than half of the district’s residents. I don’t think anyone here is ill-served by Lisa moving a few minutes from her district for the last 2 years of her service.
I regret Lisa’s move only because she was a neighbor for 10 years before she moved and I miss her as a neighbor and a friend. I’m sure that makes me biased in her favor but it’s a bias that’s based on the many fine qualities that Lisa has as a person as well as our representative.
Regardless of where she lives, Lisa Naito is not fit for public office. She’s rude, self-absorbed, and obtuse. She acts like she’s entitled to be a commissioner merely because of her family name. And she has wasted untold public resources in her pathetic, disfunctional feud with the County Chair.
It’s a good thing for the residents of SE Portland that she’s moved away. It will be even better when her term is over.
Dear readers:
Why don’t we have a poll on how lazy and inconsequential the willamette week reporters have become?
They have made this a two week story?!
The county charter says she doesn’t have to live in her district.
The reporter might have written a story to make a case about changing to the charter. But no, ww would nver pass up a chance to write about the mean girls. Lazy and inconsequential…..
Go, Lisa go. Back to the hole from whence you came.
Lisa Naito only does a “great job” for those connected constituents she believes (correctly,it seems) can help her as she moves on up. And for her “friends”. A quintessential Good Old Girl. The average citizen in her district,in Multnomah County, for that matter, means less than nothing to her. A prime example is the 2000 Animal Services task force recommendations which she has allowed her “friend” Mike Oswald to ignore/pervert, while she has enacted law in line with the wishes of an animal use group whose president lives in her district. Imo, anyone who would call her a decent representative is either ignorant or getting likely getting favors from her.