Comments

1

It'll be interesting to see how they feel after with more time and distance away from the environment and personalities.

Honesty is a process not an event.

2

Ted Wheeler has been the worst Mayor in decades. Seraphie Allen was right there for every bit of it: the illegal sweeps, the disgusting influence peddling to downtown businesses, the blocking of any action on antidisplacement, and the slow-rolling of new affordable housing under the multiple bond measures.

Wheeler and Allen's oversight of housing and homelessness has been as bad as any rightwinger could of dreamed of.

Fuck Seraphie Allen and fuck the Mercury for its crappy attempt to rehab this piece of garbage.

3

Let's also remember that Seraphie participated in the encouraging, condoning, and cover-up Wheeler Chief of Staff Mike Cox's sexual assault and harassment of City workers on city time and during city funded trips. They also participated in a weekend staff meeting where Wheeler's team fully discussed and coordinated how to cover-up Mike Cox's "alleged" crimes in exchange for employment within the city and on his campaign.

I'm sure that's not the only crime under investigation they participated in.

They have been part of the Wheeler Sex and Death Cult for so long, I have little hope for them to be able to adjust back to reality in any meaningful way.

4

--- People didn’t want to work with me because of who I worked for, so I would negotiate and say, “Okay, but what if we work on actually progressing some things forward, but you don’t have to say publicly you worked with us.” There was a lot of hoop jumping I’ve had to do to not associate certain folks with Ted, but still have them on board to get stuff done. ---

What a revealing passage! How many secret meetings with Wheeler donors were kept secret and "off the books."

This was a city-funded position in the Mayor's office and they are admitting obscuring facts and figures about dealings in the Mayor's office from the public was a common practice.

This is disgusting as it is revealing. And it shows that the Mercury is more about laundering their sources images then asking any tough questions or speaking truth to power.

What a fucking joke.

5

There is no mention of secret meetings with donors. They clearly describe anonymous exchanges with people who, for whatever reason, do not want to be associated with the Mayor or his staff on public record.

What do you find wrong with allowing public employees and government offices to secretly collaborate with certain interests free from oversight and accountability? Why should we expect government workers and political staff to be open and honest with the public about how they are using their publicly funded time and resources? Isn't that expecting too basic of ethical standards for those accepting city paychecks?

I mean, come on, this is Ted Wheeler we are talking about here. I'm sure Seraphie Allen filled him about how and why she was concealing information from the public about the use of staff time and resources.

To the best of our knowledge the mercury did not have any FINANCIAL exchanges with Seraphie Allen so they have no obligated minimum ethical disclosure about the details of their established relationship.

6

“Oh hey Portland, I just wanted to let you know that I ran an unregistered lobbying operation while I was employed by city hall where I would agree advance private interests while keeping things off the books in exchange for drinks, meals, and other favors.”

Sure, the public record thing is a crime but the lobbying is the far worse breach.

Why does everyone insist on reporting their crimes against the public interests via Twitter and news interviews?

7

It's only criminal corruption when it's used by individuals we politically disagree with, otherwise it's just sparkling embezzlement and influence peddling

8

Wow Indeed! So Seraphie Allen was basically a backdoor gatekeeper on homeless and housing issues, no wonder we've had so many fuck ups on the issue.

I don't know what's more alarming, the fact that a Wheeler staffer thinks there's nothing wrong with secret under the table deals on critical city issues, or that this type of criminal corruption has become so normalized that journalists with decades of experience can't see it when it's right in front of their faces.

This pretty plainly meets the definition of "dishonest and deceitful conduct." If any these behaviors included a mention of state or federal programs/funding, she could be in serious trouble.

9

Funding talk would make it really bad, but any unregistered lobbying at all is a huge fucking problem on its own. The public has a right to know who's lobbying our employees and how our resources are being spent, public employees can't just decide to overrule the public interest in favor of private interests, that's the very fucking definition of corruption.

How are we supposed to know what kickbacks Seraphie Allen did or didn't get as a result of this lobbying? How are we suppose to know whether or not they were having honest conversations with these private interests or if either party was being deceptive?

This isn't just about spreading untrue rumors and gossip about coworkers to get them out of your way, this is a serious violation of the most basic public trust and accountability standards.

And they were Ted Wheeler's most senior staff member? What qualifications did they have for this role and why were they allowed to continue for so long?

As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I am deeply ashamed and disappointed that these behaviors were represented in our name. I've worked too hard to be counted as an equal for this corrupt moron to hide behind our representation.

10

"I hope that he continues to surround himself with people who look different, think different, and act differently than him so that the next stage we go into as a city really brings about the diversity of opinions."

Perhaps the most thrilling part of Seraphie's triumphant story... It's so important to our City that Ted has the perspective of somebody who just graduated from Lewis and Clark and walked straight into a $75k a year "policy advisor" job at City Hall.

Their discussions of poverty and injustice must've been riveting.

It's galling both that Seraphie would say something so utterly clueless and that Alex Zielinski would shovel it right on into her story without a thought to what a stupid, stupid claim it is.


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