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Jessie Burke, the owner of Old Town’s Society Hotel, says she was removed from a public safety panel convened Wednesday under Gov. Tina Kotek’s 47-member downtown task force due to her involvement in a campaign to unseat Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt.
Burke, who’s been vocal in local and national media about her discontent with the state of downtown and her desire for more policing, was scheduled to be one of four panelists on public safety appearing Wednesday before Kotek’s Portland task force, which the governor debuted last month to brainstorm ways to combat downtown Portland’s greatest ills.
But on Tuesday morning, Burke says, she received notice from a consultant hired by the governor’s office to facilitate the task force that she had been disinvited due to her role as campaign manager for Nathan Vasquez, a prosecutor working under Schmidt who is running against the DA next year.
The directive to remove Burke from the panel came from Kotek’s office, Burke claims.
“I was contacted by the governor’s task force facilitator, [and] she let me know she had been asked to contact me on behalf of the task force to let me know I was being removed from the Governor’s Task Force Public Safety Committee panel,” Burke says, adding that the consultant told her it was “because of my role as campaign manager for Vasquez.”
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“I did share that adults are capable of differentiation,” Burke tells WW, “and if I am not capable of differentiating my role as a business owner in the central city and my work as a campaign manager, is Mike able to differentiate between being the current district attorney and being a candidate running for office?”
Schmidt was also scheduled to sit on the four-member panel Wednesday. According to a meeting agenda provided to WW and one member of the task force, Schmidt remained seated on the panel.
Burke still sits on the governor’s overarching task force, however.