When they were first designing the remodel of City Hall, the security desk was built at the back of the room (where it still is). Some of us argued it should go near the door...the counter argument was they didn't want City Hall to appear "unfriendly".

Then they decided all employees had to wear badges...but no one else. Just in case some deranged gunman might have a problem identifying exactly who were City employees they wanted to target. Back when my lien section was in City Hall, we got the occasional angry person (I mean, Homer Williams isn't the only one who doesn't like paying city liens), but never anything threatening enough to push the "panic" buttons provided for us.

I appreciate that Mayor Potter has a more realistic concern about employee safety, but, really, unless you're going to search folks who come in, a lot of the new stuff seems more show than substance. And while that just doesn't seem the right thing to do, they started doing it in SF City Hall after Harvey Milk got shot, and I'd guess that soon entering City Hall here will take about the same effort as getting on a plane. Maybe they'll let you keep your shoes on, though.

I appreciate that Mayor Potter has a more realistic concern about employee safety

I know this may sound incongruent, coming from someone who currently works behind locked doors on an inpatient psychiatric unit. But that's mostly to keep the patients in, rather than keeping other people out. Remember, 48% of assaults at work are by health care patients, most of them in nursing homes where there are no special security measures. A psychiatrist was shot dead in his office by a patient here in Portland not that long ago. So I do understand concerns about employee safety. But.... I also know how it feels to be a citizen trying to talk to someone in, say, Development Review, upstairs at the 1900 SW 4th building. They all work behind a locked door. Planners may feel safe... to me, it feels like Fort Knox. Trying to get into City Hall now does not feel like it is MY City Hall, where I as a citizen should feel welcome because I'm one of its owners. I think the current atmosphere of fear and barricades is wrong.

I attend Toastmasters in the Bonneville Power Adminstration building near the Lloyd Center most Mondays. To be admitted, I have to go through a metal detector, show my Driver's License, and state my business. Even though I go there every week, and there are only two or three security guards so they must know me by sight now, as I do them. I feel especially sorry for one of them. He seems genuinely convinced that someone is going to kill him sooner rather than later. If I put my wallet and keys in the container too fast (being all ready from having done it a hundred times or more), he gets totally wigged out. I have to do everything really slowly and softly, like one would with a scared kitten or someone suffering acute paranoid schizophrenia.

I think we've allowed a state of fear to permeate our society which has little basis in statistical reality, and which is counter-productive. We should ask ourselves, is the minute risk of an attack by a terrorist or enraged taxpayer worth the absolute certainty of added expense and giving all citizens the impression they are not trusted or welcome in City Hall?

And I think we agree, Frank, the current system doesn't give real security, it serves only to remind people "Be afraid. Be very afraid." It's the worst of both worlds.

When we started to have to show our badges to the security guards who we'd been saying "good morning" to every day...it really becomes more about ritual and illusion than anything. The illusion of safety and, I agree, the fostering of a climate of fear.

I was briefly a Wackenhut security guard back in the early 70's in NY. They gave me a uniform, a huge billy club, no training, and set me up as security at the subway stop at the Dow Jones Building. Fortunately nothing ever happened on my watch, but it was all about appearances.

It's perfectly consistent with Major Potter's insistence that he's all about the citizens, isn't it? Just like fast-tracking Charter reform, just like saying "let's not discuss the tram and FoG" while he ties the two together with his next breath, just like violating City Code, and the Charter, by refusing to let a citizen remove items from the Consent Agenda.

At least he learnt from that last-named mistake, b!X. He now makes a point of asking if any citizens want to remove any item from the Consent Agenda.

Bully for him.

Now where's the penalty for a Mayor violating City Code and City Charter while the City Attorney snoozes through it and the press treats it as a haha?

I know you thought you were joking when you said that the only people they would keep out are mentally ill people too out of touch to say "City Council" when asked where they are going but I think that is exactly who that whole setup is aimed at.

There have been quite a few incidents at city hall in the past several years where employees have felt seriously threatened by angry and incoherent people. It's not all that frequent but it hasn't been exactly rare either.

I know you thought you were joking...

I was serious. I've thought about it each time I've been waved through, and concluded severely disorganized people are the only ones the little gates would keep out. There are better ways to deal with both mentally ill and angry people, than erecting barricades. The gates aren't going to keep out the irate, in fact the old greeter system was probably better for allowing the security person to assess the body language of someone storming in.

Frank notes his office had an emergency buzzer, which he never had to use. I hope all staff have those buzzers, and likewise never have to use them. Having security staff strolling around the building ready to respond to problems, rather than stuck by the door as gatekeepers, would make more sense. So would training for all public employees (and neighborhood volunteers) on how to assess and manage difficult situations - after all, those angry, incoherent people are often present at neighborhood meetings and other community events, too.

I've seen members of the Council be extremely kind and helpful to mentally ill people in Council chambers, even escorting them personally to help them find a staff person who then assisted with problem-solving. Both mentally ill people and angry ones often respond better to gentle assistance than to physical barriers and Show of Force.