What exactly is preventing Mayor Wheeler from holding himself accountable as police commissioner? Vera Katz was a successful mayor under this form of government. Kind of weak to blame your lack of success on the rules of the game.

Sigh... I had high hopes, admittedly, but right now it sure looks like The Merc is slipping into the Phil Busse 2.0 era.

"Portland hasn’t been allowed to hire an outside police commissioner since 1913"

Is that true? Is there a provision in the charter that would prevent the mayor from keeping all bureaus, hiring a city manager and separate police commissioner, thus making the other commissioners only legislators? Why can't Wheeler test-drive a more traditional form of government without going to the voters for an amendment?

Cornelia is on the right track...

"Under this “commission” form of government, the mayor tasks himself and city commissioners with overseeing million-dollar city bureaus... while also expecting them to deliver fair votes on city issues that may affect their bureau. One of those bureaus is police, which Portland’s mayor has traditionally assigned to themselves."

Alex then diverts off into alternate (agreeably equally important) issues, that have nothing to do with police accountability, as proof of fruit from the same rotten tree.

Alex offers no examples as to how our style of government results in poorer police oversight as compared to other cities. Does anyone believe that cities like L.A., New York, Baltimore, Oakland, etc. have better systems of police accountability? Of fucking course not, because when you boil it down it's really the fact that Wheeler just simply doesn't have the balls to stand up to the police union out of fear of losing votes and $$$. Instead, Wheeler would rather we have what the majority of other cities have, with a police commissioner playing devil's advocate and someone who he can sit and point the finger at while acting helpless to affect change.

It sure is nice that Alex got to spend some quality time having an ice cream social getting to know the Mayor while settling into their new beat, but fuck me this piece is terrible. Alex, please stop playing Lady and the Tramp with our Mayor. Otherwise, you'll find yourself sucking on the same noodle eventually.