Skip to main contentThree weeks after Mayor Sam Adams admitted lying about his sexual relationship in 2005 with then-teenage Beau Breedlove, Adams is gamely trying to return to city business as usual.
In a Jan. 25 video announcing his return to work, Adams asked to be judged on "my ability to deliver results."
But it's unclear exactly what "business as usual" means for the new mayor, and even less clear that he can deliver results.
Adams' calendar for this week, for instance, includes discussion about construction of a headquarters hotel next to the Oregon Convention Center. But the once-high-profile project appears destined for the recycle bin.
Metro, the agency charged with figuring out how to fund the hotel, gave up in early January. Adams adopted the project, but the panel he asked to review it won't meet until Feb. 18, and key deadlines with the developer loom in April.
Adams' calendar includes another project where his lack of political capital could hurt: the recruitment of Major League Soccer. The Trail Blazers are leery about using the Memorial Coliseum site—Adams' preference—as a new home for minor-league baseball; the Blazers' senior vice president of business affairs, J.E. Isaac, says a baseball stadium might crowd out the organization's plans for a 24/7 Rose Quarter entertainment district. In his current tenuous situation, Adams is in no position to drive a hard bargain.
Adams has also downplayed his education initiative, acknowledging he couldn't be effective on children's issues with the Breedlove scandal hanging over his head.
He has backed off on other proposals as well, such as a tax on plastic grocery bags. And he has failed to persuade anybody to take the fifth spot on the Portland Development Commission. That post, normally considered one of the most desirable of mayoral appointments, has been vacant since July 2008.
"The mayor should have a decision made in the next couple of weeks," Adams spokesman Roy Kaufmann says of the vacancy.
The issue most starkly showing Adams' precarious political position in the wake of the Breedlove story, however, is his new vulnerability on the biggest deal on his desk: the proposed $4.2 billion Columbia River Crossing project between Portland and Vancouver.
Adams, the city's representative on a 10-member, bi-state "Project Sponsors Council" making the big decisions about the proposed bridge, persuaded his regional colleagues Feb. 6 to delay a scheduled vote on how many lanes the bridge should have.
The number of lanes has been controversial. Sponsors on the Oregon side, such as Metro, TriMet and the city, have argued for fewer lanes to reduce miles traveled and greenhouse emissions. Meanwhile, their Washington counterparts want 12 lanes, which they say will reduce traffic congestion. (The current bridges have six lanes.)
In 2008, when Portland's City Council first took up the CRC, Adams' four Council colleagues backed him as he argued for a configuration that would minimize single-passenger vehicle trips.
His staunchest backer then was his closest Council ally, City Commissioner Randy Leonard, but their strong partnership is now in tatters.
Leonard says Adams betrayed him when Adams lied about his relationship with Breedlove, and compounded that betrayal by encouraging Leonard to defend Adams when the issue first surfaced in 2007.
Leonard says his position on the bridge has evolved as he learns more from project staff. He has now joined the Clark County contingent in wanting 12 lanes.
The split has real ramifications for Adams' vision of the bridge.
The City Council was supposed to vote Jan. 28 on the issue, but Adams asked to postpone that vote. Had the vote gone forward, Leonard says Adams and Commissioner Amanda Fritz probably would have lost a 3-2 vote.
Leonard says he doesn't trust Adams to convey his views in meetings with CRC partners.
"Sam was looking for direction from the Council to go off and represent us," Leonard says. "I want a vote first because I'm not comfortable with him representing my viewpoint without that formal direction."
If the City Council had voted for 12 lanes on Jan. 28, the Leonard-Adams fracture could have shaped the most expensive public works project ever proposed for the Northwest, contrary to the wishes of Adams and his backers in the "Smarter Bridge" coalition, such as environmental groups, the bike lobby and land-use planning advocates.
Metro Council President David Bragdon, who, along with Adams, has been the most vocal proponent of minimizing the number of lanes, says his hands are tied if the City Council ends up supporting 12 lanes.
"If the city of Portland agrees to [12 lanes]," Bragdon says, "then it's kind of hard for me to say no."
The Project Sponsors Council meets again March 6 at Washington Department of Transportation's SW-region headquarters in Vancouver.
WWeek 2015