All this posturing and preening and leaking and counter-leaking shows us once again how stupid our commissioner form of government is.

But, given that we're stuck with it for awhile, if this means Silent Dan is going to think twice before voting to go along with one of Sam and Randy schemes, all the better.

"He (Adams) has also said that what some people perceive as anger is actually passion."

Sure, like ruining a teenage boy's life by lusting after him until he was just old enough to get screwed wasn't perversion, as some people might see it, but rather it was his passion for mentorship.

He's dillusional, that's for sure. Who else would take tax revenues from 25 years in the future and talk about it and spend it like it was actual cash. Now he's got these imaginary dollars that we "saved" and acting like that's real cash. Sam: When you are $6B in the hole, there isn't any more money to spend!

I thought this article was going to be about the mayor's nuts.

Forget about Saltzman. Please vote for Mary Volm. I think she has the chutzpah to tell the Mayor his ideas are nuts.

Now that Saltzman is getting so publicly clear-eyed about the human rat that is Sam Adams, I really, really want to vote for him.

He'll probably forgive him though. Saltzman epitomizes the large swathe of Portlanders who really, really, like to be nice, and don't got their feet muddy with mean-spirited things like recall campaigns.

The "exquisite ones", I call them. Because I too, like to be civilized, otherwise I would call them the fools, donkeys, and ninnies club.

gaye harris,
I agree with what you said about the large swathe of Portlanders.

I think they had it good for many years, and there are always those who take advantage of nice ones. Many may be in denial that their "City of Roses" could be this worked over by the "City That Works".

Question is? Who did it work for?

Eric,

So you would really prefer a strong mayor form of government right now, with our current mayor (or last three, actually)?

There is no way I can accept that being an even half-way decent idea.

Thanks to commission government, should a psychopath be elected to one of the five seats, there should be a corresponding reaction from the others.

I do get the impression that to this point the other four have been intimidated by our mayor by various means not apparent to the public eye, but that now that Adams is starting to unravel before everyone's eyes, the remaining commissioners have a bit more of an opening (particularly as one or more of them begin attempts to position themselves to take the mayoral seat themselves).

I think we are in for some fairly bare-knuckled politics over the course of the next two years, and believe that may be a very good thing -- now everyone in the city knows a little bit more about the weak, doughy mayor, beyond his "sustainability" squawking.

As a former member of Portland's media, I used to beg my editors to get down and dirty like this, so I commend Ryan Frank for this article. For a moment there, the newspaper business seemed exciting again.

Yes, it needs a better headline: "Saltzman to Mayor: Grow Up!" Plus Ryan should put the best quotes nearer the top.
Dan's comments about the Mayor hiding his maturity issues to get through the recall, are begging for attention.

Then we need a columnist to take these classic developments and stir them up even more. Steve Duin and Anna Griffin tried, and failed. Anna calling the Mayor a jerk was a good first step, but she did it while breathlessly stroking him and that ruined it. Steve does grumpy with the best of them, but there's nothing compelling about his sense of humor.

Here's the test: Is anyone in Portland breathlessly awaiting the next column from the Oregonian? I doubt it.

Folks, this is gold here. We have politicians fighting like high school cheerleaders in a "Bring It On" movie.
I could write a more entertaining column about this in 45 minutes than Anna and Steve could in a month.

Still, I'm encouraged. Ryan has delivered a piece here that makes me want to read the paper again tomorrow morning.
Build on that.

"I'm not going to pretend that we don't have tens of millions in sewer savings,"

Keep clapping, Tinkerbell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u48PvBTl3u8

I've posted in the years past with examples of Adams confrontational, bulling, closed minded, vindictive nature. Then he pretends to be listening by having townhall meetings or forming a committee. Examples:

The tram and his firing of Tram Committee chairman and others, even though he was all the while in charge of the tram process while serving Katz and then as commissioner in charge. Why didn't he fire himself. Then he held townhall meetings and constituted another blue ribbon committee.

Meeting with the South Portland NA (then CTLH) and bullying them to support his proposed $490 Million new "fix the streets for the children" tax by bribing them that he would "make sure" that the Gibbs Street Ped/Bike Bridge over I-5 gets built. That was ridiculous because the bridge is required by the SoWhat Plan Agreement passed by the Council anyway. He lectured the NA.

His "sleep apnea" singular soul decision to begin funding Portland's share of Milwaukie Lightrail by taking $10 Million from SoWhat by setting up a Transportation Service Development Charge area. He never tells the URAC, never has them vote on his epiphany. He "politely" threatens a few property stakeholders to not raise any fuss if you want any of your streets and infrastructure built in the next north phase on OHSU and Zidell properties. A bribe, a bullying moment.

Then recently when no additional moneys come forth for the $30M obligation to continue the MLR, "fatigued" Sam pulls another devious escapade, he declares that he'll take another $10 Million from the TIF account. The URAC never considers or votes on this matter. When they find out about it they vote unanimously to oppose the theft in writing. Then Sam and his PDC produces a Report and writes that "some members" of the URAC are concerned about the theft. Marginalize, then deceitfully Sam bully's his way to his fantasy of "for the greater good".

There's more here, and other neighborhoods have examples too.

http://www.bullyonline.org/workbully/serial.htm#Types

So, if there are tens of millions in sewer savings, why are rates contuing to escelate at a frantic pace??

Because in SamRand world, the sewer savings come from rate increases.

"The behavior I've seen in the last few months doesn't indicate he's matured," Saltzman said. "Maybe he was holding it in abeyance during the recalls."

Good observation, Dan. I expect we are in store for interesting times with our post recall mayor.

Don't the sane commissioners, who now could nominally include Dan Saltzman in their ranks, have any rights to just show Adams the door? Can't they just have a resolution demanding he resign? You know, an "enough is enough" resolution?

Randy, especially if he cooperates with a coup to remove Sam, can finally have the Police bureau. He arguably deserves it, having been the ONLY commisioner to articulate any reasonable platform on police reform. After he actually has some success there, he can apply for the mayor's job in a few years. At that point we can decide if he deserves it. Considering he has worked so hard to set himself up for failure, he could probably work equally hard to set himself up for success, IF he focuses on police reform and cuts off his madness-by-association umbilical cord to Sam and the developers.

Seriously, couldn't four or five determined commissioners kick Sam's precious rear to the door by vote?

Now THAT would be a fitting end to launch a better beginning.

For some unknown reason Leonard is being made to look like the white knight in this elected official meltdown drama. Who do you think has been playing the role of "Geppetto" through all of this? Y'all are trying to make him into another Richard J. Daley. Good luck when the $6 Billion dollar debt man takes over. Load up the U-Haul.

The Mayor's Nuts. Heh, heh.

The big question which remains unanswered is whether a Saltzman/Fish/Fritz triumvirate can last. If they are going to succeed, they will have to show conviction even in the face of retributions from Creepy. Can he realistically take their Bureaus away (or slash their staff budgets) without sacrificing his own budgets?

I would expect Saltzman to kiss and make up with Sam after the election, based on his past willingness to support Sam's hairbrained ideas. Fish/Fritz have to be worried that he could change his mind after they crawl out on the skinny branch.

Of course, Fish or Fritz could be flipped by Creepy if the budget increase to their pet project was sufficiently large.

I think all the pet project money's been spoken for. Fish and Fritz get to eat crumbs.

You're right about Saltzman, though -- no spine. Pray that he's forced into a runoff and has to act like a man all summer.

Can we call them the Mean Boys yet?

Don't the sane commissioners, who now could nominally include Dan Saltzman in their ranks, have any rights to just show Adams the door?

The mayor decides bureau assignments. Next question?

They ousted the West Linn Mayor just for lying about her qualifications. How come they pulled it off so easily and we are still stuck with this slimy, lying, theiving pervert?

Re: "The mayor decides bureau assignments. Next question?"

John Rettig, have you not brought us to the essential problem: the commission form of governance serves well only one person?

lie2me,
I put a link above on how a bully operates. . might give you some insights.

I am disappointed that the leaders of our community gave him a pass. Sometimes one has to engage whether it becomes a win or a loss, one always hopes for a win, but does it because it was the right thing to do. There were just a few willing to give money and time, and I would like to thank those who did.

If there had not been any recalls at all, the message would have been that all was OK with everyone.

John Rettig, we know the mayor assigns bureaus. Let's just assume for a second that 3, maybe even 4, (if Leonard sees the light), decided to have a vote on a resolution which simply says: "no confidence, we want the mayor to resign".

What could Adams do, pull all their bureaus, to run them all by himself?

Now THAT would be full-bore, unedited entertainment. The commissioners would go down in history as orchestrators of one of American governance's most colorful episodes, comparable to the drama of the crazy shampoo advert politician from Illinois, Blagojevich.

Lie2me: she lied in a voter pamphlet. That makes it a criminal offense. Sam may be a sleazeball, but he wasn't stupid enough to put his lies into print.

The others could have forced him out when the scandal broke by simply not agreeing to work with him on anything. It would have taken all four of them, but they could have done it. Instead they deferred to the AG investigaion and let the momentum slide away. They could have forced him to mail the resignation letter he'd drafted but they didn't.

Dave Lister, you have suggested strongly that the motto of this Gang of Five (plus One) is : "All for One and None for All."

The last eight years are the best argument for getting rid of the Commission form of government. Get a City Manager that can be hired and fired if they don't perform. Get someone in there that has one iota of experience running a city. Make it so each City Council member has to care about each bureau's budget and truly make hard decisions. Get these nutjobs out of positions of power. They are ruining what used to be a great City. Now Portland is laughable. Hell, I left the madness for the 'burbs. I never thought i would ever do that, but there was no way I could work with that bunch of narcissistic, incompetent, unprofessional, and unethical bunch of idiots another second.