Former Multnomah County Chair Diane Linn is returning to county-level work, this time as executive director of a housing nonprofit with ties to local government.
Linn, who was county chair from 2003 to 2006, will run Proud Ground, a Portland organization that helps people buy their first home. Proud Ground has collaborated with both Multnomah County and the City of Portland on affordable housing initiatives.
For the past five years,
Linn has worked as executive director of a California low-income and homeless
services organization Ritter Center. In Multnomah County, she is best known for
the "Mean Girls" era of the early 2000s, when three fellow commissioners openly
feuded with Linn.
The group – Serena Cruz Walsh, Lisa Naito and Maria Rojo de Steffey – were Linn's allies before they were rivals, even joining her in secret meetings to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in Multnomah County.
When news of the covert plan broke, Linn apologized without giving Cruz Walsh, Naito, or Rojo de Steffey a heads-up. Her former allies read about it in the newspaper, and took offense to the unilateral decision. The rift marred the rest of Linn's time on the board, and influenced future board decisions.
Cruz Walsh, Rojo de
Steffey and Naito formed an alliance to block Linn's proposals on the board, including
cutting money from the Schools Uniting Neighborhoods program that Linn
championed.
In her subsequent bid for re-election, Linn failed to get even a quarter of the votes.
A release about Linn's job move to Proud Ground states that she "acknowledges some missteps during her time with the county," but she has learned from the past.
"While my time as County Chair was an unmitigated challenge, I am proud of my leadership for marriage equality, SUN Schools, reducing homelessness and reforming the mental health system," Linn said in the release.
Linn, a Portland native,
said in an interview Monday she had been hoping to return to Oregon for some time. She has no plans to seek public office again.
"I'm proud of the work I
did at Multnomah County, and I think plenty of time has passed," she said.
Linn will start her new job on Dec. 3.