October 6, 2024 • 29 mins
Mountainwood Homes has tips on how to protect the value in your home. Portland voters get their ranked choice voting questions answered. Sickle Cell Anemia month was marked in Portland to help you understand the impacts of the disease.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Local Voices. I'm brad Ford. Your home is
one of your largest investments, so protecting the value is important.
We'll talk with mountain Wood Homes on things you can
do to maintain that value. Portlander's face rank choice voting
on the November ballot for the first time and a
change in city council voting. We'll explain what you need
to know, and we'll examine sickle cell anemia and how
(00:26):
it's affecting Oregonians. Modernizing your home is a great way
to increase value and grow your investment. Robert Wood as
President Dan owner of mountain Wood Homes and joins us
on Local Voices. Robert, what should we consider to maximize
our homes of value in the current market.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well, I think you need to always look into those
main rooms that we use all the time, which are
the kitchen, the bathroom, and you know the associated living
areas around those. Those tend to be the things that
can offer the most value you get used out of them,
and they also show really well for the money that
(01:04):
you invest.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
What are some of the reasons why people are staying
in their homes now instead of moving.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Well, I think you know the current environment with interest
rates and the availability of housing are two main factors
right now. Hopefully we're seeing some change in those things
most recently. And then folks, you know, as they go
out and try to move, they they sometimes think about
their neighborhood and they love the neighborhood that they're in,
(01:32):
and they don't really want to start making new friends
and all that, and so all those things and factors
go into to you know, making a decision about a
change in your home or remodeling a home.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah, it's a tough decision. What kind of home maintenance
should listeners consider to keep their homes from losing value?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Quite frankly, as homeowners, we're terrible about home maintenance, and
we think that, you know, this home should just last forever.
And we live in a climate that actually puts quite
a bit of stress on the exterior of a home,
and so people should maintain caulking around windows and doors,
and I would venture to say that most are like me,
(02:12):
haven't even thought about that in years and years. You know,
the paint needs to be maintained, roofing, gutters, all those
things are really important to maintain value in your home
as well as the interior too. There's all kinds of
things in the interior. You're those those rooms that we
use a lot, our bathrooms and kitchens. You know, there's
(02:32):
tile and grout and some of those things that just
need to be maintained as well, and keeping it clean
is always a real benefit.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, a lot of wear and tear. Do you have
tips on projects that can help protect their investment.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Well, and that is where we come in. And you know,
this time of year is especially important. You know, you
do need to get your gutters cleaned, You need to
get your roof checked out and make sure it's ready.
We are going into our wetter season. I do recommend
somebody check the calking around windows and doors, check the
function of windows and doors, and the weather stripping and
make sure that's in good repair. All those things go
(03:10):
into protecting that investment of You know, our home is
our biggest investment for most of us.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Absolutely. Now there are kitchen remodels, bathroom remodels, whole house remodels.
What are projects worth investing in that will increase the
value of a home?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Those really are the ones that do increase value in
your home. And what I like to talk to clients
about is the fact that you know you're going to
do this. We like to think about the investment value,
but at the end of the day, most people aren't
going to sell their house right after they do this
hard work and big projects. And so the beauty of
(03:50):
it is you get to live and enjoy those rooms,
the kitchens, your bathroom, the areas that we're in all
the time in our homes. You get to joy that
for the next few years. And if you do decide
to sell it, your home is now in a better
position compared to others in your neighborhood who haven't done
those things. So it truly is an investment that you
(04:11):
get to live and enjoy once you get that done.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Absolutely, when you're thinking about the project or putting it together,
how can you be most efficient with remodeling budget.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
That's always a fun question because we always want to
be efficient with our money, and so one of the
things that I always recommend is you do need to
get a professional involved. And of course somebody would say, well, yeah,
of course you say that, Robert, you're a builder, But no,
that's true. If you get a professional involved, they can
talk to you about the costs and strategies of different
(04:43):
projects that you want to do, and they are the
ones that know what needs to go in your home,
how you can phase it, how you can do projects
now that don't negatively affect projects that you do later.
And then the second most important thing is come with
your list of things that are important to you. When
we come into your home, we just don't know. We
(05:06):
have our ideas and we do a lot of projects,
but the client bringing to us the things that are
important to them plus our expertise, truly does create a
great investment for them and they can maximize the value
of their dollar.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
So what's the difference between a refresh and a remodel?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
And you know, this refresh word has come around in
the last couple of years and seems to be widely
used right now, and really what it is it is
just being more efficient with your dollars and so you
can do things and just using a kitchen as example,
you can leave the walls and structure and windows and
doors in their places and then do more cosmetic things countertops,
(05:51):
new plumbing, backsplashes, new flooring, and those things can really
make an impact on the liveability of your home and
just how it looks and feels when you walk in
at the end of the day, you want to feel
really good, and we've done refreshes where people are just
amazed of how well it looks and how well it feels,
(06:12):
and they did invest less than a full remodel.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Now, the mountain Wood Homes website, which is mountain Woodhomes
dot com has a blog section that I saw. Tell
us what listeners will find there, how can they use that?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
What we use that for is for inspiration. People can
see about different ideas and different projects. It's also education.
We really try hard to educate people on different things,
on a variety of different topics. And also, you know,
sometimes people want a deeper dive into what projects are
(06:46):
actually happening, what went into each project, and so there's
more explanation and deeper dive, you know, and our director
of marketing and Alicia, has done a great job in
putting those together and making them very valuable for people
to reach.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
If you haven't gone through a remodel before, you really
don't know what you're going to deal with or what
options there are, and so those blog posts really give
a good opportunity to be able to give you ideas
and then give you a place where you can start
to think about and create that list before you talk
with someone who's can end up doing the work.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Absolutely, the power of the internet does give us an
opportunity to research all this stuff and it is a
great opportunity to dig in and just get a feel
for what things are and it sparks ideas right and
that's what's great for creating that list.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Brad Robert, thanks for joining us. Appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Thank you for the invite.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
That is Robert Wood, president and owner of mountain Wood
Homes with information on how to protect the value of
your home again. Their website is mountain Woodhomes dot com.
Portlanders will face a change on the November general election ballot,
not only a change in government, but a change in
the style of voting. Joining us on voices is Deborah
(08:01):
scrog and Portland's Elections Division Manager, Deborah Wyre is issue
is ballot different than prior years.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
This year, Portland voters will be implementing ranked choice voting
for city candidate elections. And the reason that's going to
look different, quite literally, is their ballot will look different.
There will be a grid style ballot with rose for
rankings and then a number of candidates off to the
left hand side. And this is a different style of
(08:28):
ballot for Portland. We used to have a single vote option.
It's called first pass the Post, but really you just
pick one candidate that's your favorite candidate that matches with
your values and preferences, and then you move onto the
next contest. But now you'll have an option to pick
up to six that you support getting elected and you
rank those in order of your preference. So that is
(08:49):
going to be a major change for Portlanders. And you know,
you might be asking me this later, but it will
look different also because there is going to be a
lot of candidates and I don't think folks are used
to seeing that many candidates on one ballot. So something
for Portlanders to prepare for there.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah, why are there so many candidates?
Speaker 3 (09:09):
I think it's a number of different factors. This is
a historic year where we're also changing to a new
form of government, so we have the commission style and
now it's mayor council. And because of that, we are
starting with all of the positions the elected leaders open.
We're starting from scratch, right, so everyone gets a chance
to jump in to be a next leader in Portland,
(09:32):
and that means that all of the offices are open,
and that usually doesn't happen because in elections and the
way governance works is you want to really rotate and
stagger those terms of office that there aren't so many
on the ballot at once and you have some continuity
there for different offices and not everyone is up for
election at the same time. We see this throughout Congress
(09:53):
and our state legislature as well. Not a new concept,
but for us, since we're starting from scratch, every office
is going to be on the ballot and it's up
and that just means the sheer number of offices will
result in more candidates. In addition, there are more offices
now that we'll be representing Portlanders, so both all of
(10:14):
them are on the ballot for the first time for
a new form of government, and we're going to have
a twelve person council and that's much different than what
we currently have. So more offices first time of the
government starting, and I think there's a lot of interest
and optimism about this new system. And so from a
(10:36):
combination of all of those things, we saw a record
number of candidates file to appear on the ballot, and I.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Think you mentioned this earlier, but why did all this
change happen? What caused this to happen?
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Well, it all started about four years ago. In December
twenty twenty, Council appointed a Charter Commission and this is
not new, so every ten years and this happens also
in a lot of different government's local governments. There is
a commission that is appointed by that governing body to
look at that government's constitution and say, hey, does this
still work for us? Is there big changes or small changes?
(11:10):
There a different thing that we want to try out,
you know, And it ranges from you know, we don't
like these gender terms, right, they seem sort of out
of date and archaic. And it can range from things
like that, you know, the language that's used maybe not
appropriate or offensive, or or little tweaks here and there.
Maybe want to provide flexibility in more partnership with other governments.
(11:30):
And some of those changes require changes to the city's constitution.
And then they can also go to much larger changes
that the Charter Commission might propose. And previously in twenty
ten for instance, and every ten years is the required amount.
It can be more than that, but Council must appoint
the Commission every ten years, and in previous years the
(11:53):
Commission had proposed much smaller scale changes. So this time around,
the Charter Commission studied for a year and a half
and said, hey, this is the big change that we
want to present, and then it went to council and
then it went to voters and voters passed it with
fifty eight percent approval in twenty twenty two. So with
(12:13):
that passage, it really sparked into motion our office in
the city, so the city elections, the city transition team
working really closely with Multipma county elections, and we also
brought in the state at some points there too, to say, Okay,
how are we going to do this efficiently? How are
we going to do this quickly? This is a lot
of change for a government in such a short period
(12:34):
of time, and that got us to where we are today.
We are in the midst of really busy election season,
but we do feel like we're prepared and ready to go,
and that's sort of how we got here from about
four years ago.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
So you mentioned there are twelve council members, or will
be twelve council members. There are currently four council members.
There will be four districts for those twelve council members.
Explain how that works.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Sure, yes, So there's currently four commissioners and a mayor,
and the mayor often acts as a commissioner and as
well as a symbolic figurehead for the city. So we're
changing too. And the reason that's so unique this form
of government that we currently have, the commission form, is
that those commissioners have quasi judicial powers, they have legislative powers,
(13:22):
and they have administrative powers. Now, in most governments in
the US, we see that broken out into different branches
of government so that there are appropriate checks and balances
on those different branches. So we see this right in
the judicial branch and in congress or state legislatures, and
then in the executive branch either a governor or mayor
or some sort of executive system of administration, and that
(13:45):
is sort of a typical style of government. But ours
currently combines all of those roles into one commissioner, and
so we're moving to more of a separated out legislative
style council and they will have powers that create, amend, propose,
eliminate legislation for the city, including the budget, and then
(14:08):
they will have a mayor who is more of an
executive of the city and appoints, with council approval, a
professional city administrator. So we'll have the sort of executive
office that sort of implements and runs the city day
to day stuff, and then we'll have a legislative body,
which is the twelve member City Council, and then we'll
have we can never forget to the city auditor, who
(14:29):
is there to do audits and provide accountability and transparency
for the city.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
So where can listeners go to find out more about
each of the candidates that they'll see on their ballot.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Yeah, there is a lot, and so that is a
question that we're getting frequently from mayor. You know, each
port Lander is going to see nineteen candidates on their
ballot for mayor, and depending on which district they're in,
it ranges from sixteen to thirty candidates. So it's a
lot to go through. And I recommend always that you
go to your voter's pamphlet, which is mailed to every
(15:00):
household before the election, So that should be going out
in the next few weeks. Portlanders should keep an eye
out for that. And now, given not every single candidate
will be in there, and so that's when you sort
of have to do your due diligence of looking them up,
looking on their website, you know, ask your community, look
at endorsements, wherever you get trusted information. That tends to
be how people figure out about candidates. But I one
(15:23):
of the really amazing things about vote by mail that
we have in Oregon is that voters will have time
to study these candidates. And I know it is a
lot and it can be a burden, but I encourage
folks to take that time and really look at these
candidates and rank them in the order of their preference
on their ballot.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
What are the main things you want voters to keep
in mind as they prepare and do their research for
the election.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Well, a couple of things. One is, you know, this
is this is new. It is a new system, and
we're not going to get every single thing right. But
we have done a lot of change in two years,
and I think that's pretty remarkable for a government. That's
you know, governments are not set up to do this
much change in this amount of time, and so not
everything will be perfect, but a lot of things are
staying the same. And I want folks to remember that
(16:12):
you will have information put out by Mulama County Elections
at Multlama votes dot gov where you can review preliminary results,
and that's going to be the case just as it
always has been on election night. Now I will covey
that that those should be very unofficial results. It's an
idea of who's in the lead at that time, and
they will rerun those results throughout election week, so that
(16:35):
is not changing, and the county will certify results to
us on December second. We will then go to City
Council honor before December eighteenth to let all of Portlander's
as well as the city council know, here's who won
according to our city code, Here's who's elected to office
for the new city. So none of those things are changing,
and the official results can be viewed in a number
(16:57):
of different ways on the county's website. So this may
seem to be like a lot of information and a
lot of change, but there will be plenty of different
ways to interact with that change. The other thing I
wanted folks to keep in mind, this is just something
that I'm hearing that I wanted to respond to, is
you do not need to use all of your rankings.
If that seems complex, it seems like a lot of work,
it seems overwhelming, that's okay. Folks can just vote for
(17:20):
one person as they have before. Now, certainly we hope
that people will rank a little bit more than that
so we get more people's preferences on their ballot. That's
what ranked choice voting is for. But it's not a requirement,
and it does not make your ballot invalid if you
only rank one candidate. However, we really want folks to
know that they should not rank people they don't want
to get elected.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
So let me ask you this about the city council races.
There are four districts. There will be twelve council members
selected out of those. So when I look at my ballot,
I'm going to see the district that I live in,
and then do I then pick the three top people
that I would like for that or does it break
(18:01):
it down for those individual seats So.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
On your I'm not sure which district you might be in,
but you will have mayor and auditor. Every Portlander will
have mayor and auditor because those seats are elected citywide.
So that's not changing either. That happened previously and it
is happening now. The role of the mayor is a
little bit different, but every voter will get to vote
on that and and those contests, well, for auditor, we
(18:25):
only have one candidate, but from mayor you can rank
up to six and you will have one winner. So
we're only going to have one mayor and you can
rank up to six, So if your first candidate gets eliminated,
we can go to your second option and transfer that
vote over. What I will say for your question about
the districts is each and there's four different districts. They're
separated out by geography, so the districts will have three
(18:50):
councilors elected to represent each one. And that means you
will see, say you're in District four. This covers downtown
and a little bit of the east side, but downtown, northwest, southwest.
You will have thirty candidates to pick from, and you
can rank between one and six of your preferred candidates,
(19:14):
and from that three councilors will be elected from that
one contest. And we're going to look at everyone's ballots
and taliyap how many people got the top rankings, and
we'll go through pabulation of figuring out who got the
first most first rankings and then second and who got
past that threshold of election. There'll be that whole process,
(19:36):
and then from there you'll have three winners. So each
district will have three winners for a total of twelve on.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Council, and so they'll be one, two, and three and
those will become the council members for that district.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Correct. Yes, and multi winner, multi winner Rench choice voting
is used in the US, and no, it is not
super common, but it's not an untested system either, So
we know how this works. And the county actually did
a very impressive process of testing out how to do
this by hand if there were a recount process, so
(20:11):
going through and making sure we understand the math, and
they certainly do and they did a great job and
that's why we feel very confident about this. But yes,
you're correct. From that one contest where you'll see thirty
people in District four, three winners will be elected, and
the same thing for the other districts. They just have
different numbers of candidates.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Yeah. Besides the ranked choice voting change the makeup of
the council and the twelve council members instead of four
council members, that'll, you know, really two big changes. The
people will need to look at their ballots for and understand.
So where can listeners find out more if they have
questions about ranked choice voting, or Portland's new larger city council,
(20:47):
or the races, just any of the election material. Where
how can they get their answers?
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Yeah, and if people want to really go deep on
this stuff and nerd out about the math, which we
do see that sometimes we love those folks. But if
people just want toigh level overview, maybe watch a simple
video or see a practice election and practice voting, they
can do all of those things and learn more at
Portland dot gov slash vote.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Thanks Deborah. That's Debora Skaraga, the Elections Division manager for
the City of Portland. September with Sickle Cell Awareness Month,
important City Council Market with a proclamation City Council or
Vegas Maps introduced the subject.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Over one hundred thousand Americans live with sickle cell disease,
which is a painful and life altering genetic condition that
disproportionately impacts black and brown communities, including many right here
in Portland. Sickle cell disease can lead to severe pain, infection,
damage to vital organs, and it often shortens life expectancy well.
(21:52):
The challenges of sickle cell disease remain daunting. Recent scientific
advancements have brought hope. New treatments, including FDA approved drug therapies,
have improved the lives of many patients, and ground breaking
research continues to push us closer to a cure. The
National Institutes of Health, through initiatives like the Cure Sickle
(22:14):
Cell Initiative, are working tirelessly to develop safe and scalable
gene therapies to treat this disease. We must redouble our
efforts to support individuals and families impacted by sickle cell disease.
This means improving access to quality healthcare, promoting and partnering
with community organizations, and continuing to invest in research that
(22:37):
brings us closer to a cure.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Pastor Marcia Taylor is the executive director of the Sickle
Cell Foundation of Oregon.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
We are all about raising awareness and education. Just a
little bit about the agency. We started over forty years
ago after my mom's best friend lost a child to
sickle cell disease and it was the first time we'd
ever heard of it. Both of them were nurses, and
(23:04):
I didn't know that I was about to give birth
to a child who also would be born with sickle cell.
We started over forty years ago as a support group
and then it evolved into a five oh one C
three nonprofit agency, and then we begin working toward developing
and developing programs specifically designed and dedicated to accommodating the
(23:33):
needs of those that face sickle cell challenges every day,
such as access to care and socio economical support, mental
health and isolation, and so many others. And for those
of you that may have never learned anything at all
about sickle cell, it is a group of disorders that
(23:54):
cause red blood cells to become misshapen, shaped like a sickle,
and it causes great pain. It shortens the lifespan of
those that are affected by it. What happens is, under
certain conditions, the normal red blood cells take on a
(24:15):
sickle shape, which blocked those normal cells. And every time
that happens, it did blood cells that are normal and
they take that shape. It creates something like a blockage
or a dam. Recently, we had a client in Eugene.
We had become involved with this client being medically transported
(24:40):
from Eugene, Oregon, to Portland to OHSU where she was
transfused not once but twice, And I say it's a
lack of education. They often take our clients for drug seekers,
and so she was not given enough pain medication to
make her comfortable and they didn't understand that she needed
(25:03):
to be transfused to save her life. One of the
things that we'll be seeking for now is helped to
establish statewide emergency sickle cell protocols, just like we have
for those that are about to have a heart attack,
and we're hoping we'll have something like cold read when
(25:25):
they come in and they're in this excruciating pain, whether
it's from a cold or exertion or infection, it needs
to be looked into right away.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Charles Smith is the project coordinator for the Sickle Cell
Foundation of Oregon.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
A couple of things that we do. Like many social
service organizations, we're thinking about people from a holistic standpoint,
and we want to attend to the social needs as
well as the health and basic needs that people have
to create a better life experience and quality of life
for people. We also do services or young people, especially
(26:02):
in transition from pediatric care to adult care offering youth programs.
The kids with sickle cell have the same needs as
all other kids, so they're subject to violence and threats
in the community. They need good opportunities for encouragement and mentorship.
(26:22):
They need, in addition to that, good health awareness. And
if any of you have ever experienced a chronic condition,
it's difficult to maintain attention to it because you'd like
it to be gone. And so when we're feeling well,
people with sickle cell tend to not think about their
condition and how to stay well, But when they come
(26:44):
into crisis, it's all hands on deck to respond to them.
So being aware of just the circumstances that people experience
can help us to be more responsive to the needs
that people have. I'm thinking about this in relation to
the previous conversation about emergency housing services. If you're an
emergency for too long, you begin to adapt to it,
(27:05):
and you can sort of tolerate the day to day
of an ongoing problem. But when it becomes imminent again,
our alarms go back off and we're ready to mobilize ourselves.
So same thing with sickle cell disease. When kids are
feeling well, when adults are feeling well, they're in inclination
for self care and to do the preventive things kind
(27:26):
of reduces because we'd like to think that so will
go away. Another service that we provide is a support
group for families and sickle cell warriors on the third
Thursday of each month, and we also offer wellness programming.
People can do breathing and movement to improve their internal
(27:48):
functioning and also improve their mental and emotional selves. What
I wanted to raise up here was that, especially at
the city level, if we can take the next step
from just acknowledging sickle cell as a condition for us
to pay attention to, to now start looking at how
we can address the social determinants of health and sort
(28:12):
of the health health related social needs efforts that are
been going on now, but how that applies to people
with sickle cell. So we need a good environment, so
we're not too hot, too cold, we don't have a
lot of stressors going on in our life. All those
things affect our metabolism and what can happen in our
sickling experience when it comes to hemoglobin and blood levels.
(28:37):
One thing that would request that the city may be
considered as we move forward, maybe in a partnership in
the future. Is looking at how city resources and programs
could help advance the awareness about the causes of sickle
cell disease, the cures and also the treatments that are available,
and how the city can be involved in and creating
(29:01):
better environments for families and youth and adults who are
experiencing sickle cell and how the different programming areas everything
from police response to crises, situations, to ems responses, what
roles city plays in housing go figure, how about that
to making sure that people in highest need for help
(29:24):
related conditions are also considered when we're looking at how
this securities house people and make sure that they're safe
and healthy.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
That's Charles Smith, project coordinator for the Sickle Cell Foundation
of Oregon. If you'd like to learn more, their website
is Sicklesellregon dot org. Thanks for listening to Local Voices.
I'm Brad Bard. You can hear past episodes on the
iHeartRadio app under the podcast tab. Local Voices is a
public affairs presentation from iHeartRadio
Welcome to Local Voices. I'm brad Ford. Your home is
one of your largest investments, so protecting the value is important.
We'll talk with mountain Wood Homes on things you can
do to maintain that value. Portlander's face rank choice voting
on the November ballot for the first time and a
change in city council voting. We'll explain what you need
to know, and we'll examine sickle cell anemia and how
(00:26):
it's affecting Oregonians. Modernizing your home is a great way
to increase value and grow your investment. Robert Wood as
President Dan owner of mountain Wood Homes and joins us
on Local Voices. Robert, what should we consider to maximize
our homes of value in the current market.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well, I think you need to always look into those
main rooms that we use all the time, which are
the kitchen, the bathroom, and you know the associated living
areas around those. Those tend to be the things that
can offer the most value you get used out of them,
and they also show really well for the money that
(01:04):
you invest.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
What are some of the reasons why people are staying
in their homes now instead of moving.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Well, I think you know the current environment with interest
rates and the availability of housing are two main factors
right now. Hopefully we're seeing some change in those things
most recently. And then folks, you know, as they go
out and try to move, they they sometimes think about
their neighborhood and they love the neighborhood that they're in,
(01:32):
and they don't really want to start making new friends
and all that, and so all those things and factors
go into to you know, making a decision about a
change in your home or remodeling a home.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah, it's a tough decision. What kind of home maintenance
should listeners consider to keep their homes from losing value?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Quite frankly, as homeowners, we're terrible about home maintenance, and
we think that, you know, this home should just last forever.
And we live in a climate that actually puts quite
a bit of stress on the exterior of a home,
and so people should maintain caulking around windows and doors,
and I would venture to say that most are like me,
(02:12):
haven't even thought about that in years and years. You know,
the paint needs to be maintained, roofing, gutters, all those
things are really important to maintain value in your home
as well as the interior too. There's all kinds of
things in the interior. You're those those rooms that we
use a lot, our bathrooms and kitchens. You know, there's
(02:32):
tile and grout and some of those things that just
need to be maintained as well, and keeping it clean
is always a real benefit.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, a lot of wear and tear. Do you have
tips on projects that can help protect their investment.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Well, and that is where we come in. And you know,
this time of year is especially important. You know, you
do need to get your gutters cleaned, You need to
get your roof checked out and make sure it's ready.
We are going into our wetter season. I do recommend
somebody check the calking around windows and doors, check the
function of windows and doors, and the weather stripping and
make sure that's in good repair. All those things go
(03:10):
into protecting that investment of You know, our home is
our biggest investment for most of us.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Absolutely. Now there are kitchen remodels, bathroom remodels, whole house remodels.
What are projects worth investing in that will increase the
value of a home?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Those really are the ones that do increase value in
your home. And what I like to talk to clients
about is the fact that you know you're going to
do this. We like to think about the investment value,
but at the end of the day, most people aren't
going to sell their house right after they do this
hard work and big projects. And so the beauty of
(03:50):
it is you get to live and enjoy those rooms,
the kitchens, your bathroom, the areas that we're in all
the time in our homes. You get to joy that
for the next few years. And if you do decide
to sell it, your home is now in a better
position compared to others in your neighborhood who haven't done
those things. So it truly is an investment that you
(04:11):
get to live and enjoy once you get that done.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Absolutely, when you're thinking about the project or putting it together,
how can you be most efficient with remodeling budget.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
That's always a fun question because we always want to
be efficient with our money, and so one of the
things that I always recommend is you do need to
get a professional involved. And of course somebody would say, well, yeah,
of course you say that, Robert, you're a builder, But no,
that's true. If you get a professional involved, they can
talk to you about the costs and strategies of different
(04:43):
projects that you want to do, and they are the
ones that know what needs to go in your home,
how you can phase it, how you can do projects
now that don't negatively affect projects that you do later.
And then the second most important thing is come with
your list of things that are important to you. When
we come into your home, we just don't know. We
(05:06):
have our ideas and we do a lot of projects,
but the client bringing to us the things that are
important to them plus our expertise, truly does create a
great investment for them and they can maximize the value
of their dollar.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
So what's the difference between a refresh and a remodel?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
And you know, this refresh word has come around in
the last couple of years and seems to be widely
used right now, and really what it is it is
just being more efficient with your dollars and so you
can do things and just using a kitchen as example,
you can leave the walls and structure and windows and
doors in their places and then do more cosmetic things countertops,
(05:51):
new plumbing, backsplashes, new flooring, and those things can really
make an impact on the liveability of your home and
just how it looks and feels when you walk in
at the end of the day, you want to feel
really good, and we've done refreshes where people are just
amazed of how well it looks and how well it feels,
(06:12):
and they did invest less than a full remodel.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Now, the mountain Wood Homes website, which is mountain Woodhomes
dot com has a blog section that I saw. Tell
us what listeners will find there, how can they use that?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
What we use that for is for inspiration. People can
see about different ideas and different projects. It's also education.
We really try hard to educate people on different things,
on a variety of different topics. And also, you know,
sometimes people want a deeper dive into what projects are
(06:46):
actually happening, what went into each project, and so there's
more explanation and deeper dive, you know, and our director
of marketing and Alicia, has done a great job in
putting those together and making them very valuable for people
to reach.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
If you haven't gone through a remodel before, you really
don't know what you're going to deal with or what
options there are, and so those blog posts really give
a good opportunity to be able to give you ideas
and then give you a place where you can start
to think about and create that list before you talk
with someone who's can end up doing the work.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Absolutely, the power of the internet does give us an
opportunity to research all this stuff and it is a
great opportunity to dig in and just get a feel
for what things are and it sparks ideas right and
that's what's great for creating that list.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Brad Robert, thanks for joining us. Appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Thank you for the invite.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
That is Robert Wood, president and owner of mountain Wood
Homes with information on how to protect the value of
your home again. Their website is mountain Woodhomes dot com.
Portlanders will face a change on the November general election ballot,
not only a change in government, but a change in
the style of voting. Joining us on voices is Deborah
(08:01):
scrog and Portland's Elections Division Manager, Deborah Wyre is issue
is ballot different than prior years.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
This year, Portland voters will be implementing ranked choice voting
for city candidate elections. And the reason that's going to
look different, quite literally, is their ballot will look different.
There will be a grid style ballot with rose for
rankings and then a number of candidates off to the
left hand side. And this is a different style of
(08:28):
ballot for Portland. We used to have a single vote option.
It's called first pass the Post, but really you just
pick one candidate that's your favorite candidate that matches with
your values and preferences, and then you move onto the
next contest. But now you'll have an option to pick
up to six that you support getting elected and you
rank those in order of your preference. So that is
(08:49):
going to be a major change for Portlanders. And you know,
you might be asking me this later, but it will
look different also because there is going to be a
lot of candidates and I don't think folks are used
to seeing that many candidates on one ballot. So something
for Portlanders to prepare for there.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah, why are there so many candidates?
Speaker 3 (09:09):
I think it's a number of different factors. This is
a historic year where we're also changing to a new
form of government, so we have the commission style and
now it's mayor council. And because of that, we are
starting with all of the positions the elected leaders open.
We're starting from scratch, right, so everyone gets a chance
to jump in to be a next leader in Portland,
(09:32):
and that means that all of the offices are open,
and that usually doesn't happen because in elections and the
way governance works is you want to really rotate and
stagger those terms of office that there aren't so many
on the ballot at once and you have some continuity
there for different offices and not everyone is up for
election at the same time. We see this throughout Congress
(09:53):
and our state legislature as well. Not a new concept,
but for us, since we're starting from scratch, every office
is going to be on the ballot and it's up
and that just means the sheer number of offices will
result in more candidates. In addition, there are more offices
now that we'll be representing Portlanders, so both all of
(10:14):
them are on the ballot for the first time for
a new form of government, and we're going to have
a twelve person council and that's much different than what
we currently have. So more offices first time of the
government starting, and I think there's a lot of interest
and optimism about this new system. And so from a
(10:36):
combination of all of those things, we saw a record
number of candidates file to appear on the ballot, and I.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Think you mentioned this earlier, but why did all this
change happen? What caused this to happen?
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Well, it all started about four years ago. In December
twenty twenty, Council appointed a Charter Commission and this is
not new, so every ten years and this happens also
in a lot of different government's local governments. There is
a commission that is appointed by that governing body to
look at that government's constitution and say, hey, does this
still work for us? Is there big changes or small changes?
(11:10):
There a different thing that we want to try out,
you know, And it ranges from you know, we don't
like these gender terms, right, they seem sort of out
of date and archaic. And it can range from things
like that, you know, the language that's used maybe not
appropriate or offensive, or or little tweaks here and there.
Maybe want to provide flexibility in more partnership with other governments.
(11:30):
And some of those changes require changes to the city's constitution.
And then they can also go to much larger changes
that the Charter Commission might propose. And previously in twenty
ten for instance, and every ten years is the required amount.
It can be more than that, but Council must appoint
the Commission every ten years, and in previous years the
(11:53):
Commission had proposed much smaller scale changes. So this time around,
the Charter Commission studied for a year and a half
and said, hey, this is the big change that we
want to present, and then it went to council and
then it went to voters and voters passed it with
fifty eight percent approval in twenty twenty two. So with
(12:13):
that passage, it really sparked into motion our office in
the city, so the city elections, the city transition team
working really closely with Multipma county elections, and we also
brought in the state at some points there too, to say, Okay,
how are we going to do this efficiently? How are
we going to do this quickly? This is a lot
of change for a government in such a short period
(12:34):
of time, and that got us to where we are today.
We are in the midst of really busy election season,
but we do feel like we're prepared and ready to go,
and that's sort of how we got here from about
four years ago.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
So you mentioned there are twelve council members, or will
be twelve council members. There are currently four council members.
There will be four districts for those twelve council members.
Explain how that works.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Sure, yes, So there's currently four commissioners and a mayor,
and the mayor often acts as a commissioner and as
well as a symbolic figurehead for the city. So we're
changing too. And the reason that's so unique this form
of government that we currently have, the commission form, is
that those commissioners have quasi judicial powers, they have legislative powers,
(13:22):
and they have administrative powers. Now, in most governments in
the US, we see that broken out into different branches
of government so that there are appropriate checks and balances
on those different branches. So we see this right in
the judicial branch and in congress or state legislatures, and
then in the executive branch either a governor or mayor
or some sort of executive system of administration, and that
(13:45):
is sort of a typical style of government. But ours
currently combines all of those roles into one commissioner, and
so we're moving to more of a separated out legislative
style council and they will have powers that create, amend, propose,
eliminate legislation for the city, including the budget, and then
(14:08):
they will have a mayor who is more of an
executive of the city and appoints, with council approval, a
professional city administrator. So we'll have the sort of executive
office that sort of implements and runs the city day
to day stuff, and then we'll have a legislative body,
which is the twelve member City Council, and then we'll
have we can never forget to the city auditor, who
(14:29):
is there to do audits and provide accountability and transparency
for the city.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
So where can listeners go to find out more about
each of the candidates that they'll see on their ballot.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Yeah, there is a lot, and so that is a
question that we're getting frequently from mayor. You know, each
port Lander is going to see nineteen candidates on their
ballot for mayor, and depending on which district they're in,
it ranges from sixteen to thirty candidates. So it's a
lot to go through. And I recommend always that you
go to your voter's pamphlet, which is mailed to every
(15:00):
household before the election, So that should be going out
in the next few weeks. Portlanders should keep an eye
out for that. And now, given not every single candidate
will be in there, and so that's when you sort
of have to do your due diligence of looking them up,
looking on their website, you know, ask your community, look
at endorsements, wherever you get trusted information. That tends to
be how people figure out about candidates. But I one
(15:23):
of the really amazing things about vote by mail that
we have in Oregon is that voters will have time
to study these candidates. And I know it is a
lot and it can be a burden, but I encourage
folks to take that time and really look at these
candidates and rank them in the order of their preference
on their ballot.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
What are the main things you want voters to keep
in mind as they prepare and do their research for
the election.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Well, a couple of things. One is, you know, this
is this is new. It is a new system, and
we're not going to get every single thing right. But
we have done a lot of change in two years,
and I think that's pretty remarkable for a government. That's
you know, governments are not set up to do this
much change in this amount of time, and so not
everything will be perfect, but a lot of things are
staying the same. And I want folks to remember that
(16:12):
you will have information put out by Mulama County Elections
at Multlama votes dot gov where you can review preliminary results,
and that's going to be the case just as it
always has been on election night. Now I will covey
that that those should be very unofficial results. It's an
idea of who's in the lead at that time, and
they will rerun those results throughout election week, so that
(16:35):
is not changing, and the county will certify results to
us on December second. We will then go to City
Council honor before December eighteenth to let all of Portlander's
as well as the city council know, here's who won
according to our city code, Here's who's elected to office
for the new city. So none of those things are changing,
and the official results can be viewed in a number
(16:57):
of different ways on the county's website. So this may
seem to be like a lot of information and a
lot of change, but there will be plenty of different
ways to interact with that change. The other thing I
wanted folks to keep in mind, this is just something
that I'm hearing that I wanted to respond to, is
you do not need to use all of your rankings.
If that seems complex, it seems like a lot of work,
it seems overwhelming, that's okay. Folks can just vote for
(17:20):
one person as they have before. Now, certainly we hope
that people will rank a little bit more than that
so we get more people's preferences on their ballot. That's
what ranked choice voting is for. But it's not a requirement,
and it does not make your ballot invalid if you
only rank one candidate. However, we really want folks to
know that they should not rank people they don't want
to get elected.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
So let me ask you this about the city council races.
There are four districts. There will be twelve council members
selected out of those. So when I look at my ballot,
I'm going to see the district that I live in,
and then do I then pick the three top people
that I would like for that or does it break
(18:01):
it down for those individual seats So.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
On your I'm not sure which district you might be in,
but you will have mayor and auditor. Every Portlander will
have mayor and auditor because those seats are elected citywide.
So that's not changing either. That happened previously and it
is happening now. The role of the mayor is a
little bit different, but every voter will get to vote
on that and and those contests, well, for auditor, we
(18:25):
only have one candidate, but from mayor you can rank
up to six and you will have one winner. So
we're only going to have one mayor and you can
rank up to six, So if your first candidate gets eliminated,
we can go to your second option and transfer that
vote over. What I will say for your question about
the districts is each and there's four different districts. They're
separated out by geography, so the districts will have three
(18:50):
councilors elected to represent each one. And that means you
will see, say you're in District four. This covers downtown
and a little bit of the east side, but downtown, northwest, southwest.
You will have thirty candidates to pick from, and you
can rank between one and six of your preferred candidates,
(19:14):
and from that three councilors will be elected from that
one contest. And we're going to look at everyone's ballots
and taliyap how many people got the top rankings, and
we'll go through pabulation of figuring out who got the
first most first rankings and then second and who got
past that threshold of election. There'll be that whole process,
(19:36):
and then from there you'll have three winners. So each
district will have three winners for a total of twelve on.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Council, and so they'll be one, two, and three and
those will become the council members for that district.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Correct. Yes, and multi winner, multi winner Rench choice voting
is used in the US, and no, it is not
super common, but it's not an untested system either, So
we know how this works. And the county actually did
a very impressive process of testing out how to do
this by hand if there were a recount process, so
(20:11):
going through and making sure we understand the math, and
they certainly do and they did a great job and
that's why we feel very confident about this. But yes,
you're correct. From that one contest where you'll see thirty
people in District four, three winners will be elected, and
the same thing for the other districts. They just have
different numbers of candidates.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Yeah. Besides the ranked choice voting change the makeup of
the council and the twelve council members instead of four
council members, that'll, you know, really two big changes. The
people will need to look at their ballots for and understand.
So where can listeners find out more if they have
questions about ranked choice voting, or Portland's new larger city council,
(20:47):
or the races, just any of the election material. Where
how can they get their answers?
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Yeah, and if people want to really go deep on
this stuff and nerd out about the math, which we
do see that sometimes we love those folks. But if
people just want toigh level overview, maybe watch a simple
video or see a practice election and practice voting, they
can do all of those things and learn more at
Portland dot gov slash vote.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Thanks Deborah. That's Debora Skaraga, the Elections Division manager for
the City of Portland. September with Sickle Cell Awareness Month,
important City Council Market with a proclamation City Council or
Vegas Maps introduced the subject.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Over one hundred thousand Americans live with sickle cell disease,
which is a painful and life altering genetic condition that
disproportionately impacts black and brown communities, including many right here
in Portland. Sickle cell disease can lead to severe pain, infection,
damage to vital organs, and it often shortens life expectancy well.
(21:52):
The challenges of sickle cell disease remain daunting. Recent scientific
advancements have brought hope. New treatments, including FDA approved drug therapies,
have improved the lives of many patients, and ground breaking
research continues to push us closer to a cure. The
National Institutes of Health, through initiatives like the Cure Sickle
(22:14):
Cell Initiative, are working tirelessly to develop safe and scalable
gene therapies to treat this disease. We must redouble our
efforts to support individuals and families impacted by sickle cell disease.
This means improving access to quality healthcare, promoting and partnering
with community organizations, and continuing to invest in research that
(22:37):
brings us closer to a cure.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Pastor Marcia Taylor is the executive director of the Sickle
Cell Foundation of Oregon.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
We are all about raising awareness and education. Just a
little bit about the agency. We started over forty years
ago after my mom's best friend lost a child to
sickle cell disease and it was the first time we'd
ever heard of it. Both of them were nurses, and
(23:04):
I didn't know that I was about to give birth
to a child who also would be born with sickle cell.
We started over forty years ago as a support group
and then it evolved into a five oh one C
three nonprofit agency, and then we begin working toward developing
and developing programs specifically designed and dedicated to accommodating the
(23:33):
needs of those that face sickle cell challenges every day,
such as access to care and socio economical support, mental
health and isolation, and so many others. And for those
of you that may have never learned anything at all
about sickle cell, it is a group of disorders that
(23:54):
cause red blood cells to become misshapen, shaped like a sickle,
and it causes great pain. It shortens the lifespan of
those that are affected by it. What happens is, under
certain conditions, the normal red blood cells take on a
(24:15):
sickle shape, which blocked those normal cells. And every time
that happens, it did blood cells that are normal and
they take that shape. It creates something like a blockage
or a dam. Recently, we had a client in Eugene.
We had become involved with this client being medically transported
(24:40):
from Eugene, Oregon, to Portland to OHSU where she was
transfused not once but twice, And I say it's a
lack of education. They often take our clients for drug seekers,
and so she was not given enough pain medication to
make her comfortable and they didn't understand that she needed
(25:03):
to be transfused to save her life. One of the
things that we'll be seeking for now is helped to
establish statewide emergency sickle cell protocols, just like we have
for those that are about to have a heart attack,
and we're hoping we'll have something like cold read when
(25:25):
they come in and they're in this excruciating pain, whether
it's from a cold or exertion or infection, it needs
to be looked into right away.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Charles Smith is the project coordinator for the Sickle Cell
Foundation of Oregon.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
A couple of things that we do. Like many social
service organizations, we're thinking about people from a holistic standpoint,
and we want to attend to the social needs as
well as the health and basic needs that people have
to create a better life experience and quality of life
for people. We also do services or young people, especially
(26:02):
in transition from pediatric care to adult care offering youth programs.
The kids with sickle cell have the same needs as
all other kids, so they're subject to violence and threats
in the community. They need good opportunities for encouragement and mentorship.
(26:22):
They need, in addition to that, good health awareness. And
if any of you have ever experienced a chronic condition,
it's difficult to maintain attention to it because you'd like
it to be gone. And so when we're feeling well,
people with sickle cell tend to not think about their
condition and how to stay well, But when they come
(26:44):
into crisis, it's all hands on deck to respond to them.
So being aware of just the circumstances that people experience
can help us to be more responsive to the needs
that people have. I'm thinking about this in relation to
the previous conversation about emergency housing services. If you're an
emergency for too long, you begin to adapt to it,
(27:05):
and you can sort of tolerate the day to day
of an ongoing problem. But when it becomes imminent again,
our alarms go back off and we're ready to mobilize ourselves.
So same thing with sickle cell disease. When kids are
feeling well, when adults are feeling well, they're in inclination
for self care and to do the preventive things kind
(27:26):
of reduces because we'd like to think that so will
go away. Another service that we provide is a support
group for families and sickle cell warriors on the third
Thursday of each month, and we also offer wellness programming.
People can do breathing and movement to improve their internal
(27:48):
functioning and also improve their mental and emotional selves. What
I wanted to raise up here was that, especially at
the city level, if we can take the next step
from just acknowledging sickle cell as a condition for us
to pay attention to, to now start looking at how
we can address the social determinants of health and sort
(28:12):
of the health health related social needs efforts that are
been going on now, but how that applies to people
with sickle cell. So we need a good environment, so
we're not too hot, too cold, we don't have a
lot of stressors going on in our life. All those
things affect our metabolism and what can happen in our
sickling experience when it comes to hemoglobin and blood levels.
(28:37):
One thing that would request that the city may be
considered as we move forward, maybe in a partnership in
the future. Is looking at how city resources and programs
could help advance the awareness about the causes of sickle
cell disease, the cures and also the treatments that are available,
and how the city can be involved in and creating
(29:01):
better environments for families and youth and adults who are
experiencing sickle cell and how the different programming areas everything
from police response to crises, situations, to ems responses, what
roles city plays in housing go figure, how about that
to making sure that people in highest need for help
(29:24):
related conditions are also considered when we're looking at how
this securities house people and make sure that they're safe
and healthy.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
That's Charles Smith, project coordinator for the Sickle Cell Foundation
of Oregon. If you'd like to learn more, their website
is Sicklesellregon dot org. Thanks for listening to Local Voices.
I'm Brad Bard. You can hear past episodes on the
iHeartRadio app under the podcast tab. Local Voices is a
public affairs presentation from iHeartRadio
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