The divide in Washington, D.C., over the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court also reached Portland on Monday, but for different reasons.
After a director of a city bureau emailed all city employees on Friday to invite them to a “confirmation watch party” Monday morning, one outraged city employee who self-identified as “neither bigoted nor misogynistic nor a Republican” objected to the party and the use of city resources to send the invitation, calling it “irresponsible behavior.”
The employee also alleged the party violated city prohibitions on using city time to advocate political positions. But Linda Meng, Portland’s city attorney, rejected that allegation this afternoon.
“That’s not what this is,” Meng told WW. “I don’t think there’s a legal violation.”
The bureau director accused of breaking the rules (falsely, according to Meng) is María Lisa Johnson, of the Human Relations bureau. Johnson did not return a call from WW today. Below is the email she sent.
—–Original Message—–
From: Johnson, María Lisa
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 5:52 PM
To: Citywide All Employees Distribution List
Subject: Sotomayor Confirmation Watch Party – Portland Bldg Monday 10:30 am
Fellow City Employees,
President Obama has nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to fill retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter’s seat. Judge Sotomayor will be the country’s third woman confirmed to the nation’s highest Court, and the first-ever Latina nominated for this distinct honor.On Monday, July 13 at 10:00a ET, the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin hearings on this nominee. Judge Sotomayor will likely make her opening statement at approximately 11:00am PST, and we want to be watching and supporting her as she presents her qualifications to the country.
You are invited to join us to watch history in the making and witness this extraordinary moment by coming to a Sotomayor Watch Party, hosted by the Urban League of Portland, the Office of Human Relations and the Human Rights Commission.
What: Judge Sotomayor Hearing Watch Party
When: July 13, 2009 at 10:30am PTWHERE: Portland Building, Room C, 1120 SW 5th Ave, Portland 97204
Who: Community leaders, the media, & YOU!
Check out the invitation flyer.
MARIA LISA JOHNSON, DIRECTOR
Office of Human Relations – Human Rights Commission
5315 N VANCOUVER AVE, PORTLAND, OR 97217
Phone: 503-823-4428 Fax: 503-823-4420
All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Illustration by Steve Garfield
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Completely inappropriate by a City employee, and completely violative of the ban on political activity by public employees on public time.
We are paying out city employees to watch TV?
Sounds to me like there’s plenty of free time at old city hall. I think we might want to consider some reduced work hours, reduced salaries and maybe layoffs.
How about canceling that cable hookup as well?
Could save us a few bucks as tax payers.
mr. voluptuous says:
July 13, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Completely inappropriate by a City employee, and completely violative of the ban on political activity by public employees on public time.
Mr.V: Wanna bet no one is fired?
An e-mail went out Monday morning specifying that city employees would be expected to have clearance from their supervisor and use personal time to attend. I think the objecter made his/her point.
d says:
July 14, 2009 at 3:59 pm
An e-mail went out Monday morning specifying that city employees would be expected to have clearance from their supervisor and use personal time to attend. I think the objecter made his/her point.
Dear “d” WTF would you need a supervisors OK to watch something on personal time?
Are you saying they can be atr work ,and go off the clock?
If so…more reason to recall SAM..and consider the rest.
Of course you can go off the clock during the middle of the day – with approval. Why would that be a big deal? Say an employee normally has a noon-12:30 lunch – but asked to take that half hour earlier in the day, combine it with an hour of vacation time, and watch the hearing from 10:30 to noon.
On second thought, tape it and watch it later, and show up and be productive for us taxpayers.
If that idea runs against their grain…I want a doctor to evaluate the sanity of there minds, and perhaps let them go to add to the already sick unemployment numbers.
Keep pushing City halll,KEEP PUSHING!
Of course you can go off the clock during the middle of the day – with approval. Why would that be a big deal?
You show up to work, that’s why, not watch tv!
It’s reassuring that Meng doesn’t “think there’s a legal violation here”. Maybe she’ll be a supreme court nominee someday.
Yeah, fair point. I think the original e-mail was totally out of line. (And the objecting city employee had it right.)
Asking that employees use personal time makes this much less of a issue in my mind…but I see your point and agree that any offical city e-mail that invites employees to put aside work for awhile and watch something on TV is still questionable (at best). Hosting such an event in a city building and using city resources is questionable as well. What is the cost of 3-4 minutes of every city empolyee’s time to read two e-mails? Not insignificant.
How is it a violation of anything to use *government* resources to promote the viewing/participation of *government* proceedings?
How is there anything remotely political about that?
Look, whether you are for or against her confirmation – it is a Supreme Court Justice of the United States of America who was nominated by a freely elected President of the United States of America being confirmed/not confirmed by the freely elected Congress of the United States of America.
It is not a rally – it is watching government proceedings, of which they are potentially quite historical.
And I am glad to know that every commenter here has worked 100% of the hours they have been paid for, absolutely, completely, and without any sort of “slacking”. Never read a paper, never took too long in the bathroom, never took an extended lunch to swing by the post office, never called your broker on company time, never called in sick to go fishing…
Jesus people, get off your high horse. Even government employees are people, with families and feelings and problems just like us all. They are just employees – they don’t make the policy, elected officials do that.
Now, if the request had been for employees to use some form of official Multnomah County position to support or oppose the confirmation – then that would clearly be inappropriate. But asking people to get together to simply watch them? We are SUPPOSED to be involved with our government, we are SUPPOSED to be engaged with our government! My company allowed and encouraged us all to watch Obama’s innauguration.
IT IS IMPORTANT STUFF, no matter what your political ideology. Hell, even if you oppose it, you are better off being more informed – and can mount better opposition!
*correction* – I should have said “official City if Portland position”. (not Multnomah County).
And I am glad to know that every commenter here has worked 100% of the hours they have been paid for, absolutely, completely, and without any sort of “slacking”. Never read a paper, never took too long in the bathroom,
“never took too long in the bathroom”
Dear VR: You wanna take this one back?
At the gym today, and here is CNN, talking about her confirmation.
There was some Latino woman expounding why she was so excited..”SOON,THERE WILL BE SOMONE WHO LOOKS LIKE ME, AND MAKING DECISIONS FOR MILLIONS OF LATINOS!”
let that sink in! No BS,that is what she said, the anchor,also Latino, went on, “it’s about the struggle..the life experiances,What the hell does that have to do with a damn thing, except if your plying for power, instead of support the Constitution.
——————————————————————————–
LAW OF THE LAND
Sonia Sotomayor ‘La Raza member’
American Bar Association lists Obama choice as part of group
——————————————————————————–
Posted: May 27, 2009
11:20 pm Eastern
By Joe Kovacs
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
As President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee comes under heavy fire for allegedly being a “racist,” Judge Sonia Sotomayor is listed as a member of the National Council of La Raza, a group that’s promoted driver’s licenses for illegal aliens, amnesty programs, and no immigration law enforcement by local and state police.
According the American Bar Association, Sotomayor is a member of the NCLR, which bills itself as the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S.
Meaning “the Race,” La Raza also has connections to groups that advocate the separation of several southwestern states from the rest of America.
Over the past two days, Sotomayor has been heavily criticized for her racially charged statement: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”
The remark was actually made during a 2001 speech at the University of California’s Berkeley School of Law. The lecture was published the following year in the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal.
Could Mexico retake the southwestern United States? Get the DVD that says the invasion is already happening!
I have a good friend,his name is Fidel,he stoof in line for all the right reasons, and two years ago,he became a citizen, he learned English, pays taxs, works hard and ASSIMILATED to this country asking only for the chance to be a citizen.
Then you get the following:
1.we can only conclude that social, economic, cultural, and political independence is the only road to total liberation from oppression, exploitation, and racism. Our struggle then must be for the control of our barrios, campos, pueblos, lands, our economy, our culture, and our political life. El Plan commits all levels of Chicano society – the barrio, the campo, the ranchero, the writer, the teacher, the worker, the professional – to La Causa.
2.. POLITICAL LIBERATION can only come through indepen-dent action on our part, since the two-party system is the same animal with two heads that feed from the same trough. Where we are a majority, we will control; where we are a minority, we will represent a pressure group; nationally, we will represent one party: La Familia de La Raza!
3. Those institutions which are fattened by our brothers to provide employment and political pork barrels for the gringo will do so only as acts of liberation and for La Causa. For the very young there will no longer be acts of juvenile delinquency, but revolutionary acts.
There is no lie from La Raza, there really isn’t, like Obama…he said there would be “change”, and he damn sure has delivered, and so will La RAZA, and ALL…of it’s members.