Hall Monitor

There was a lot of talk at last week’s council session about… who
talks the most in council. So, who’s the biggest windbag?

City Commissioner Nick Fish certainly led off with a strong start,
monopolizing the floor for at least five minutes to talk about all
manner of issues—eventually prompting an impatient interruption
by City Commissioner Randy Leonard after complimenting a Portland
Development Commission (PDC) board member for being a “pretty good
softball player” at a recent game in East Portland.

“You’re saying you want to put a baseball stadium in over there?”
asked Leonard, with a wry smile on his face—Fish was an outspoken
opponent of Leonard’s plans to bring baseball to Lents earlier this
year. “You’re just going on and on and on and on and on.”

It’s true: Fish can be a little verbose at times. But Leonard is no
wallflower, either, and Fish interrupted him, three minutes and
41 seconds into his subsequent monologue about PDC. “Mayor, I move to
waive the three-minute time limit for Commissioner Leonard, and I ask
that he be allowed to speak for longer,” Fish said. Touché!

Later, Mayor Sam Adams interrupted Leonard before he could
compliment a retiring union member. “You let Nick talk whenever he
wants,” said Leonard.

All this piqued my curiosity, so I decided to time the recorded
session and see who really spoke the most. In first place, after all,
was HURRICANE RANDY: Leonard spoke for 851 seconds, or
14:11. In second place, GALE FORCE FISH: Fish spoke for
532 seconds, or 8:52. In third place, MAYOR GUSTING:
Adams spoke for 394 seconds, or 6:34, but then, much of that was
time spent officiating proceedings. Then there’s COUNCIL’S MODEST
BREEZE: City Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who spoke for 228 seconds, or 3:48. Finally, COUNCIL’S BLESSED LULL: City
Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who only spoke for 118 seconds, or
1:58. 

Unsurprisingly, Fritz and Saltzman declined comment on the numbers.
But the mayor said he was “surprised by how much time the public spends
listening to us instead of us listening to the public,” on Monday,
October 12. He added: “Concise decision-making is a worthy cause.”

“I’d offer a comment, but your paper doesn’t have enough space,”
said Fish. Meanwhile Leonard was unavailable Monday but his chief of
staff Ty Kovatch responded: “Randy is out of town at an all-day
speaking engagement.”