BEFORE SHE laid out Multnomah Countyâs troubling racial disparities to conference attendees in October, Amanda Lamb acknowledged that the subject matter wasnât easy.
âWhen you have the speakerâs badge, people like to ask you what your presentation is on,â Lamb told people whoâd come to hear her present at the Tableau Conference, a huge gathering of data geeks in Las Vegas. âWhen I tell them the title of my presentation, it kind of shuts down the conversation almost immediately.â
Now, the presentation (titled âRacial and Ethnic Disparity in Criminal Justice: Measurement, Monitoring, and Accountabilityâ) has shut down Lambâs employment, too.
In a swift turn of events first reported by the Mercury, the Multnomah County research analyst was placed on paid leave last Wednesday, December 6, and formally fired two days laterâall because she shared racial disparity data from various parts of the county justice system without formal permission.
âAs an employer, we canât overlook the unauthorized disclosure of information,â county spokesperson Julie Sullivan-Springhetti said last week. âThatâs what this is about. This is not about the disparities she was discussing at the Tableau Conference.â
The firing came two months after Lambâs appearance at the conference, and roughly a month after the Mercury reported that the presentation had caused heartburn for justice officials, who questioned its accuracy. But Lambâs terminationâthe second time sheâs lost a job after airing racial disparity dataâhasnât sat well with many, inspiring a chorus of criticism on social media.
âWouldnât it be cool if MultCo was as quick and clear about remedying disparate treatment of its residents as it is about firing people it doesnât like??â tweeted Nkenge Harmon Johnson, president of the Urban League of Portland.
Wouldn't it be cool if MultCo was as quick and clear about remedying disparate treatment of its residents as it is about firing people it doesn't like?? https://t.co/ObJakynNKV
â Nkenge (@TrueNkenge) December 10, 2017
The City Club of Portland weighed in on Twitter as well, writing: âThere are important questions here about the publicâs right to know and the duty of a public servant to inform. Is it important that this disparity data be kept locked away? And important to/for whom?â
That tweet was enough to warrant a retort from Multnomah County, which tweeted: âWeâve never shied away from owning the disparities we have in Multco. Weâre the people who asked for the dashboard, hired the staff & have been working to make it public. We have a personnel issue & we have a disparities issue. Two different things.â
We've never shied away from owning the disparities we have in Multco. Weâre the people who asked for the dashboard, hired the staff & have been working to make it public. We have a personnel issue & we have a disparities issue. Two different things. https://t.co/1mO28HIo0y
â Multnomah County, OR (@multco) December 10, 2017
Lamb, meanwhile, hasnât responded to emails seeking comment. In 2015, she was laid off from the Multnomah County Sheriffâs Office after issuing a report about racial disparities in county jails.
Judges, the countyâs district attorney, and others told the Mercury last month that they were blindsided by Lambâs October 10 presentation. As local analysts watched it online in real time, concerns circulated that Lamb hadnât been authorized to share the informationâa preview of a âracial and ethnic disparities dashboardâ officials have been working on for much of the last year. Officials said part of Lambâs access agreement to sensitive information was that she wouldnât share it without permission.
Some complained sheâd unfairly painted local officials as reluctant to share data that suggests, for instance, that Black people in the county are 4.2 times more likely to be booked into jail than white people, and more likely to be prosecuted as well.
âIt is not public yet,â Lamb said during the presentation. âItâs not because people are trying to hide anything. This is just really sensitive to the people who are going to be held accountable by the system Iâve created.â
Others called her conclusions misleading, questionable, or, in the words of Multnomah County Chief Criminal Judge Ed Jones, âhalf-assed analysis.â
The blowback was strong enough that Lambâs boss, Abbey Stamp, asked that footage of the presentation be scrubbed from the web (the Mercury obtained a copy via a public records request). But there wasnât a hint that Lamb would be fired for what she shared with her audience on October 10. Stamp, discussing the matter last month, said it was a âmisunderstanding.â
âWeâre approaching how to avoid these kerfuffles in the future,â she said. âHer passion on this is palpable.â
At the time, District Attorney Rod Underhill told the Mercury that Lamb had apologized, and he appeared to be satisfied that she believed sheâd made a mistake. Local court officials, meanwhile, were concerned about Lambâs characterizations, and believed theyâd been cast in an unfairly negative light.
âIâve gotten up in a lot of presentations and said, âWeâve got disparities in the criminal justice system... and we absolutely need to commit, and we need data to hold ourselves accountable,ââ Presiding Judge Nan Waller said last month. But, she added, âI want the presentation correct so we know what the issues are.â
Officials have repeatedly told the Mercury they are hoping to make the racial-disparity data available to the public. Whatâs less clear is whether it already should be. Under Oregon public records law, data created by public bodies is routinely subject to disclosure, with limited exemptions.
On Monday, December 11, the Mercury asked Sullivan-Springhetti what, if any, exemptions the county would cite if we requested the data Lamb shared. We did not hear back by our print deadline on December 12.
Meanwhile, the countyâs letter [PDF] informing Lamb sheâd been fired was clear: She wasnât allowed to share any more.
âPlease return any and all County property, including any and all data obtained from or through any computer data system to which you had access...â read the letter. âBear in mind that because you are no longer employed by Multnomah County, you are not authorized to possess any such data, or share any such data with, or transmit any such data to, any person not employed by Multnomah County.â