One hundred workdays into his term as mayor, Sam Adams is
still struggling to shake the media’s obsession with the Beau Breedlove scandal. My well-worn copy of May’s Unzipped magazine notwithstanding, I would personally love to let the whole
issue go and focus on city policy… were it not for more news
suggesting Adams continued to lie to get himself out of trouble after
admitting to sleeping with the teen.
Adams’ former Communications Director Wade Nkrumah filed
notice of his intent to sue the city last week, alleging that Adams
damaged his professional reputation by telling a TV reporter
Nkrumah had quit because the job “was not what he had signed up for in
terms of stress.”
Not exactly accurate, according to Nkrumah. “Wade specifically told
Sam Adams that he was resigning because of the lies about the teen,”
read a statement by Nkrumah’s attorney, Michael Hanlon.
Nkrumah quit the mayor’s office on January 26, a week after his boss
admitted to Willamette Week that he had lied during an earlier
interview with the paper on January 15 about the nature of his
relationship with Breedlove. At the time, Nkrumah—a former
20-year veteran Oregonian reporter—did not return our
calls seeking comment on his resignation. Now his threatened lawsuit
seems as much about setting the record straight as it does about
the $160,000 in damages being sought.
Nkrumah asked Adams whether there had been any “flirting” or
“touching” with Breedlove before he turned 18 years old at a
meeting at Adams’ chief of staff’s house, on January 22, according to
the tort claim. “Adams answered unequivocally ‘no,‘” says the
tort claim, despite Adams having promised to “candidly” answer
questions from staff. Then on January 25, Breedlove told the
Oregonian he and Adams had kissed twice when he was 17. Later,
public records requests showed Adams had called Breedlove 33 times
while he was a minor.
Adams’ office says it will let the city attorney’s office handle the
claim. But it seems pretty watertight, and then there’s the question of
who pays for it, should Nkrumah prevail. The mayor has said he
would step down if the scandal impacted city business, so why should
taxpayers now have to stump up all that money, plus attorney’s
fees?
I doubt Adams has the money sitting around to do the right thing and
pay the claim, either. Now he’s probably thinking this isn’t the job
he signed up for in terms of stress. Burrrrrrrn!
When it comes to a persons private life, particularly their sex life, I say if it’s between consenting adults, okay by me. However, our Mayor was smooching up a 17 year old, and that’s what all this fuss is about.
But until that whole debate is untangled by either a recall, some kind of legal action by the Attorney General, or nothing happens, it’s a whole new stinky ethics problem when you straight face lie to your employees and expect them to use their talents to keep your career afloat. Mr. Nkhruma has a point.
If our Mayor was a cop, he would have already been fired.
“was not what he had signed up for in terms of stress.”
I actually agree with Adams on this one. Nkrumah couldn’t deal with the stress of being a spokesman for a serial liar with a penchant for underage bathroom trysts.