Portland City Council fails to elect new leader
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After marathon rounds of voting and hours of debate, the Portland City Council failed Wednesday to elect one of its members as president of the city's legislative body for the year.
Why it matters: The president sets the agenda for the council, appoints members to various committees and oversees meetings to make sure decorum is kept and all members are heard fairly.
The latest: The 12-member council remained deadlocked through nine rounds of voting over six hours, with half the councilors supporting council president and moderate Elana Pirtle-Guiney, and the other six pushing for progressive Sameer Kanal.
Zoom in: Pirtle-Guiney was nominated by Councilor Loretta Smith, who said the president had "set a standard for transparency and collaboration that others should follow."
- Councilor Jamie Dunphy nominated Kanal to lead the body, saying he brings a "collaborative leadership style, a strong instinct for systems building and a clear commitment to making this council more accessible."
The intrigue: Over the council's first year under the revamped governance system, Kanal joined five other councilors — Candace Avalos, Mitch Green, Dunphy, Tiffany Koyama Lane and Angelita Morillo — in an informal progressive caucus, known as "Peacock," that often voted in lockstep to advance their priorities.
- Councilor Steve Novick said he was uncomfortable voting for anyone in the progressive caucus because he worried they would favor their colleagues within the group.
- "Our ability to be values-aligned and effectively organize should not be punished," Morillo countered. "That is the role of a politician."
Friction point: Over the course of the day — and repeated votes with the same result — frustration grew among the councilors.
- Eric Zimmerman said Kanal didn't possess the temperament to hold a leadership position, while Morillo shot back that councilors of color were being held to a different standard than their white counterparts.
As tempers grew short and councilors traded barbs, Pirtle-Guiney ended the meeting with a plan to reconvene Thursday at 2pm.
Catch up quick: It took the council nine rounds of voting to agree on a leader last year.
- And they were only able to do so after Pirtle-Guiney emerged as a compromise candidate when neither Avalos nor Olivia Clark, a progressive and moderate, respectively, could garner a majority vote.
- Green eventually broke ranks with his progressive colleagues and provided the decisive vote for Pirtle-Guiney.
The big picture: The council's first year under Portland's new form of government was a bumpy one, with members building legislative infrastructure as they forged new precedents with each move they made.
- The body passed several pieces of impactful legislation and closed a massive budget gap, but also struggled with lengthy meetings, disagreements over the council's relationship with the mayor and sometimes tense arguments at the dais.