Skip to main content
Portland Commissioner Steve Novick accepted a $2,000 campaign contribution from prominent developer Homer Williams on July 29 and then voted Aug. 10 to approve a controversial project to serve the homeless on city-owned property.
Now his opponent in the November runoff for his seat is raising questions about Novick's decision to accept the money, which was Williams' second donation of 2016.
Taking a donation from a person with business in front of the city council, then voting in favor of that person's proposal, undermines the public's confidence in decision-making, Eudaly says.
"I think it's not great practice," she says, "It just looks really bad to the public."
Novick was a swing vote in the 3-2 decision to approve Williams' Oregon Trail of Hope homeless campus at the site of Portland's Terminal 1, 14 acres of industrial land that once served as staging ground for the city's Big Pipe sewer overhaul.
He was forced into a runoff with Eudaly after failing to clear the 50 percent threshold in the May primary.
He defends his decision to take the money, saying he also took money from people who oppose the project, including developer Tom Cody, who gave $1,000 the day before Williams donated.
"It's a small town," Novick writes in an email. "You wind up with supporters on opposite sides of most major issues."
Willamette Week