NO MATTER WHAT you think of him, what he does, and how he does it, one thing is true: Mayor Sam Adams gets shit done.
You can say he’s “desperate to create a legacy,” and relentlessly distracted by shiny policy baubles, or you can say he’s a politically canny wonk with a potent case of workaholism. But for a guy who thought seriously about quitting in disgrace just a few weeks after getting the job in 2009, Adams has racked up a quietly impressive list of wins both small and large over the past four years.
Battling back from a sex scandal and two recall attempts, not to mention the worst recession in a generation, a politically damaged Adams probably could have also slugged and scrapped his way to a second term. (If not for the Beau Breedlove kerfuffle, Adams might even have won by a landslide.) For a while he tried. But it wasn’t to be.
Adams has to give back the Prius keys to the city at the end of this month. And when he does, love him or hate him, Oregon politics is losing an institution. Adams spent the last two decades of a nearly 30-year political career stalking around the place, first as Mayor Vera Katz’s chief of staff, then city commissioner and mayor.
Given that record, we asked Adams to share his personal thoughts on the best ways to succeed in the business of Portland City Hall—as a candidate, as the boss, and as an advocate. Here’s his (condensed and edited) advice.
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HOW TO UNDERSTAND MEDIA!
“Stories are not written about what you get done—stories are written about what people say. The reason we do our own annual reports is so people can judge whether their investment in me has been worth it. In the past four years, during the worst recession in recent history, I will humbly put myself up against anyone else’s agenda.”
“Very few people in the media have the time to go and dig in deep—especially with the demise of traditional media. In-depth coverage isn’t happening anywhere close to the degree as it was when I came into city hall. I really worry about that. Because if there’s a city with ‘wonk’ in its middle name, this would be that city. We thrive on that. When Portland understands an issue adequately and sets out a plan, we tend to accomplish what we’re after, with a lot of help from the fourth estate.
“Then add the advent of social media and how that’s influenced civic discourse and media coverage. It’s incredibly different.
“For example, the Oregonian editorial page would never write an editorial without calling the subject. Yes, they took their cues from their own coverage—but they’d always call you. They never call anymore.
“The Oregonian now does retribution. Look what they did to Charlie Hales. [The paper reported on a campaign letter sent to the St. Johns Review that placed Hales on a neighborhood tour he wasn’t on and also lifted passages from an Oregonian article.] When he asked for a correction, they called him ‘thin skinned.'”
“The first story matters a lot. [‘Sewer money for bike lanes’] was an example of a mistake on process. I did it quickly and, in hindsight, I knew it was one of those issues people are rightfully concerned about. The first story that came out on it was from Jim Redden [of the Portland Tribune] and I called [Redden] immediately and said it was inaccurate. But it was never changed.
“Now, I would have gotten it in writing, and posted it ourselves, first on our site and Twitter. That’s what we’ve learned to do—we put ideas out for public comment sometimes weeks before we bring them to council. We’ve adapted to use social media for good public policy by putting drafts out there and using Twitter, Facebook, and email to get public comments on it. That’s a specific change that we’ve made.”
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HOW TO WIN AN ELECTION!
“Campaign politics does not reward detailed agendas. I ran for city commissioner on a very specific agenda. I didn’t start out in public service to be an elected official. I decided if I were going to run for public office, I’d do it my way. So I geeked out and put out really specific policy points, much to [political consultant] Mark Wiener’s chagrin. We finished 11 points behind in the primary. And he said, ‘See? Nobody cares.’ The Oregonian took me to task, ‘The city doesn’t need a wonk. They need a commissioner.’ Different day, different editorial board. But we ran with it. We made signs that said, ‘Honk for the wonk!'”
“Not running for mayor was absolutely the right decision. The reason I didn’t run for office is so I could get my agenda done—so I didn’t have to pay much attention to the campaign. Can you imagine if I had introduced an ordinance to take [fired police officer Ron] Frashour to the appeals court as a candidate for mayor? All the complications that would have created? It would have been a fight. Whether or not I would have won… I don’t know. But I couldn’t have won and pushed through the controversial agenda that I had. The bag ban! Compost changes! This is controversial stuff.”
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HOW TO RESPOND WHEN ASKED WHO YOU VOTED FOR!
“None of your damn business.”
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HOW TO KEEP A LID ON THE COPS!
“Understand the role we all play. It’s the [police] union’s job to defend its members. Not some of the time—not on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays—but all of the time, on all issues. It is, by tradition, very robust. In officer-involved shootings, they always say our officer acted in accordance with training, and if you’ve got a problem with what happened, you’ve got a problem with our training and policy. They always do that. That’s their job. They always say that pursuit of any sort of discipline is because of politics. Their mission is to protect their members, and they’ve done quite a good job of it.
“My frustration is when the coverage accepts that as the reality. Portland is not well served by newspapers writing stories based solely on [police union boss] Daryl Turner’s point of view. No offense.”
“Keep the Frashour lawsuit going. All the way to the [Oregon] Supreme Court. [The city council, led by Adams, is challenging an arbitrator’s decision to reinstate Ron Frashour, the officer who killed Aaron Campbell.] Whatever hundreds of thousands of dollars we will pay is worth finding out whether state law should be applied, and if it should be applied, is there some fault to it.”
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HOW TO TAKE THE FIGHT TO CITY HALL!
“Make a list. When I was first in office, one of the first things I did was call the AMA [the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform] and say, ‘Make a list. You all make a list and figure out what the top five things are, and then the next five things, and we’ll get those things done.’ Almost everything on the list led to change in one way or another. When I asked the AMA for their list, I asked them for all the PARC [Police Assessment Resource Center] report—all the recommendations written regarding police reforms—and I said, we’re going to put them all down, all the recommendations. Then we asked the police for their response to the recommendations. And we said, ‘We’re overwhelmed with requests for reforms, and we’ve got to get back to people with what we’re going to do.'”
“You don’t have to come up with the solution. That’s another thing to keep in mind for folks who are working in ongoing advocacy. My job as a leader is to help the advocates and the police bureau get clear about their communication. The AMA has met with the police chief and commissioner on a regular basis for the past two years. We got clear on what they meant and helped them get clear about their own priorities.”
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HOW TO RUN A GOVERNMENT!
“We have to fight at a higher weight class. One of our biggest vulnerabilities is we can believe the positive national press about ourselves and cling to it too tightly. We really are one of the most sustainable cities in the country—but that’s high praise on an incredibly low standard. Because we’re smaller, we have to fight at a higher weight class, or we will become a virtual suburb to San Francisco and Seattle.
“We have to be an intentionally successful economic and academic community. We don’t have the heft of population that turns a city into an economic powerhouse. That’s why a lot of the work we did on the Portland Plan is so important—it’s not the be-all, end-all, but it’s the first time I’ve seen a city like us have a strategic plan.
“When we sat down after the Portland Plan was approved, I convened all the transportation agencies in the city to talk about budgets. It was the first time TriMet, the city, the Port of Portland, and others sat down to make a consolidated financial sheet. This is what money we have, and here’s where it’s going. That work needs to continue. Let’s spend our money in the wisest way possible. And with fewer state and federal dollars coming our way, it’s a necessary thing to do.”
“Respect the bureaucracy. I feel like my time here in city hall has earned me three or four Ph.D.s. Chief of staff is a really difficult job, because you have to be the badass. That’s your job—to fire people. The mayor’s job was to hire people. You [fire people] a couple times, word gets around.
“It’s folly to assume that bad systems mean bad people or bad intentions. Usually failure to get results is a leadership failure and an organizational failure. You had better respect the bureaucracy and then seek to improve it.
“The city had two housing agencies and two economic development agencies that warred with each other for decades. You had really good people trapped in a really dysfunctional bureaucracy. The first week in office, we put housing under the housing bureau and economic development under the Portland Development Commission. Now you know that housing’s working because you have one bureau working on it.”
“I wanted to do it my way. [Taking control of city bureaus during budget season, which many mayors have done] is a lot of work for the mayor’s office. The responsibility can be so great that you don’t have the time to exercise your authority in a meaningful way. I didn’t feel like I needed to do it to get this city council to view things in a fair-minded manner. In my budgets, we’ve cut $36 million on an ongoing basis, so we can invest money back into services. I benefited from working for Vera Katz, the former chair of the Oregon Legislature’s Joint Ways and Means Committee, for 12 budgets. The city’s budget is something I know pretty well. I wanted to do it my way. Everyone gets to do their own thing.”
“The most effective commissioners are the ones who can count to three. As mayor, I solicit, on a regular basis, how can I help my colleagues. And I do. I follow through. Where we agree, I want to help them. I think of my job as first among equals. I also spend a lot of time with them. You will find me in commissioners’ offices multiple times a week. Knowing that it’s only a flight of stairs to the second floor, but it might as well be 300 miles away if you never go down there to say ‘hello’ and see where they need help. It’s not rocket science.”
“Portlanders expect you to try to get to five votes. I always try to get to five. That’s important for the esprit de corps of the council. I’ve worked to try to iron out disagreements between people when we thought it would be useful. Portlanders don’t like coalitions. They don’t like cliques. Like with the JTTF [meaning the city’s controversial effort in 2011 to reengage with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force], I aimed for five votes. Everyone thought I was insane. Especially my staff. And [then-acting US Attorney] Dwight Holton. But the more important the issue, the more important it is to get to five.”
“I believe in strategy. I believe in knowing where you’re at, having a goal, and getting there in incremental steps. The electric vehicle strategy, clean energy works, the bag ban, composting—you didn’t see that all happen in one day. That’s all part of the climate action plan and our economic development efforts. Why did we do composting? Because having a third of our garbage going to Arlington—which turns into methane, which is 20 times worse for the environment than other gasses—is a very solvable problem. Is it more important than jobs? No. And that’s why in the first two years of my terms you saw me focus very, very heavily on jobs.”
“Minimize meetings with mayors. Maximize meetings with CEOs. If you don’t have three or four CEOs behind you, that’s a missed opportunity. City hall functions much more smoothly than when [Charlie Hales] left office. When he left, the economic strategy on the books had 13 targeted industries. That’s not a targeted industry. That’s a smorgasbord. Now we have four.”
“My biggest worry is losing the Portland Plan. It’s a strategic plan, not just a land-use plan. In the city’s last comprehensive plan, the only part that anyone paid any attention to was the land-use elements. It’s not legally binding, it’s not sexy, and it’s hard work. The press always wants to know, ‘How are you going to get all these things done? Where is the money coming from?’ It’s about getting stuff done with the money you have. Like in transportation, I decided that the most important thing we’re going to focus on is safety and build from that.”
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HOW TO HAVE A LIFE! (HINT: YOU WILL FAIL)
“I’ve gotten better at maintaining a balanced life. But I don’t think anyone would say I’m good at it. I’ve got a passion for my work. But my friends and family know I’m this way. Hopefully they can help keep me balanced. We’ll see what happens to me next. I owe Peter [Zuckerman, Adams’ partner] a lot of dates.”
Unsolicited advice from a loser.
I really enjoyed this article. I also though Adams was an exceptional leader, Mayor, and all around very intelligent politician. Perhaps his most compelling capability, to me, as an activist and advocate on a number of issues, was the way in which Adams could dismiss, in whole sale, the temperance of people.
Adams would command a room, “No applause.” In doing so, he dismissed the capability of the majority to express itself, and he would do this under the pretext of expediting the “process”. Rationally, this was ridiculous, and by no means were people obligated to abide by his commands, yet people did.
Having been a victim of this “no applause” strategy (look up my second comment ever on The Mercury), I still do appreciate this ability, and generally like his ability to command people. In the few times I spent with the Mayor, he never once bullshitted me, and I can’t recall a time where he was propagating outright falsehoods. My only condemnation would be his inability to share his perspective on a situation, he did this purposefully to disable people from countering his perspective and attacking his position. Obviously people made assumptions regarding his thoughts about one thing or another, but Adams would never provide you a list of why he supports a specific initiative, thereby you could never really counter him. The unfortunate side of this was that if Adams truly had a more informed opinion, it rarely spread beyond his inner circle. It was difficult to convince that man of anything: what Adams wanted to do, he was going to do, and be damned if there was alternatives or naysayers. That’s leadership and tyranny – but at least Adams was virtuous, even if I disagreed with him.
“Stories are not written about what you get done—stories are written about what people say.” – This is advice that every reader of every piece of media needs to understand. By shifting (or creating) a conversation, you can dominate the news. The media will never, ever, provide an unbiased report on exactly what happened, the media want to provide the information that people will talk about, they want the controversy.
Geez, just blow him and get it over with already.
‘Workaholic’? Haahhaahhahaha, fucking seriously? If you mean working hard at avoiding actual problems to whore out for “bikes” (not a terrible thing though) and ANY CHARITY OR FILMING CREW IF IT MEANT AVOIDING CITY HALL, then yes. As opposed to the Mercury sucking up to this guy, I actually asked people I know who had to work directly with him. Quite a different story indeed, but then again who am I to expect competent unbiased journalism from you? Or perhaps you see what you want to and only care about the issues that relate to you, hmm?
I’ve always held he had shitty ideas, and wasn’t exactly psyched about it when he won the mayorship. But the “workaholic” part doesn’t suprise me: lots of people I know who had bad ideas were also indefatigable.
Remember when he was going to ‘recycle’ the Sauvie Island Bridge?
That is, until we saw the price tag in an election year.
@Showstopper – are you surpised that a gay man has a bit of vanity and like being in front of the camera? Or are you just jealous?
I think we can agree that even if you disagreed with Mayor Adams ideas, he was able to get more shitty things done than most elected leaders. Better to have a leader you disagree with than no leader at all.
BARF!!!!!!!
And of course the question burning in the hearts of all Portlandandianianiandians:
Will Amy Ruiz return to grace the pages of The Mercury?
How to Get Shit Done in Portland the Sam Adams Way:
1. Utilize the police force to brutalize anyone who dares to feed the homeless too conspicuously (when they’re all gathered in one place, it’s too obvious how many of them of there are, plus they smell icky) and assemble in public spaces. This has nothing to do with anyone criticizing your administration, of course.
2. Unequivocally and unapologetically defend the police whenever they shoot young Black people for daring to hold cell phones, or mentally ill people for daring to act like they have mental illnesses.
3. When scandal threatens, bribe anyone who has pertinent information and could expose you by offering them cushy jobs with no real responsibilities for which they aren’t particularly qualified.
4. Also, bribe the adolescents you fuck not to talk about fucking you.
5. Lie your ass off at any available opportunity when all else fails, then act really sorry about things that might have happened, maybe, but you can’t be sure.
6. Serve the interests of the Portland Police, Portland Business Alliance, and Metro first. Once that’s taken care of, the people … well let’s face it, they can go fuck themselves, you have all the powerful folk on your side, so you don’t need those freeloading plebeian scum anyway.
@Fidelity Axiom, his sexuality is irrelevant to me. It is now, and it was when I VOTED FOR HIM. I certainly of not jealous of Mayor Adams, because I try and face my obligations, not solely rely on charm and special interests. No, he did not do a terrible job at all, but not up to the level of ass kissing this publication engages in.
I guess he’s going to be suffering some serious withdrawal now?
And championed Portland Sunday Parkways!!!
Sheesh, how are there so many Portland Mercury readers who hate Sam Adams for weird, false, or immaterial reasons? Did you get lost on your way to the Willamette Week?
I can’t speak for all those who were not thrilled by Adams election win, and I certainly don’t agree with treasonousbastard – who strikes me as psycho himself, but I thought Adams fought dirty to get elected against Dozono, a honorable man. His bankruptcy to me meant he was clearly unfit to control the cities finances, and he has proven this true again and again to me. Oh, and then there was the Breedlove scandal, just as Adams was about to celebrate Obamas victory in Washington DC, he had to fly back here to address it. A straight man cruising a young girl intern while in school would have been crucified. Remember when Obama flew through here last time? Wouldn’t even be seen with Adams at the airport, for crying out loud. And I loves Obama. These are just a few reasons I can’t stand the fact he represents our fair city, none of which I think are at all wierd, false, or immaterial.
Oh, let’s not forget Adams indignation as he fought off allegations of being involved with Kid Breedlove as the scandal broke, when Ball was considering making a run for mayor.
I believe Adams said something like ‘It is these sort of allegations that are so harmful to the gay community, and especially hateful coming from another gay man, as it tells the public you cannot trust your children around us.’
That quote is not 100% correct (help here Denis or Sarah?), but all lies.
Sam’s accomplishments should include failing to pay his mortgage, t-boning another motorist in a fit of road rage and not being by the skin of teeth a registered sex offender. His list of accomplishments is a skinny edition indeed. The Mercurys fawning over this dried turd of a human who basically hid under his desk for the first 2 years of his mayoralty is about as low as journalism gets. I’d take an honorable Tom Potter over this media slut any day, at least we didn’t get ridiculed then.
Ease up. He did manage to get the City sued by the Federal Government, before he left office. I wonder how much this is going to cost us?
http://www.koinlocal6.com/news/local/story…
Feds sue to stop any excessive force by Portland Police
Reported by: KOIN Local 6 staff Email: webproducer@koin.com
Sam has done a great job running the police force here.
I particularly admired the way he handled the ‘occupy’ mess, with the help of our cops.
Critisize him fairly.
Oh ho ho ho (slaps knee). I’m reading this in LA (dries eyes). The fact this mayor is getting treated like a war criminal in these comments is just adorable. You guys are so cute. Down here the 30% of us who know who the current mayor is are sort of grimly satisfied if his crimes aren’t capital. Whoooo heh heh. Precious.
If he had come out of the closed BEFORE he got ellected, WOULD HE have gotten elected in the first place? Now that he’s out, will he ever be able to get another job again?
If nobody will hire Sam Adams after he leaves office giving the reason as the damage he did to Portland during his tenure, he can just say they are simply making excuses not to hire him because he is giddy; I mean gay, and then sue every company that turns him down. He could become a very wealthy professional litigant.