Jamie Dunphy chosen as City Council president
Stalemate is ended as District 1 councilor receives nine of 12 votes; Clark is elected VP
Portland City Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney helped end a long stalemate by reaching “across the aisle” Wednesday to support Jamie Dunphy as her successor.
After Dunphy assumed the role of council president, the body nominated and approved Councilor Olivia Clark, who represents the city’s westside and a portion of Southeast Portland, as council vice president in an 11-0 vote. Councilor Loretta Smith declined to support Clark’s candidacy.
District 1’s Dunphy, who received nine of the 12 council votes, promised to discontinue participation in the “Peacock” caucus.
“For me, it was an organizational tool,” he said, noting that he frequently voted against measures supported by the caucus.
Pirtle-Guiney and Councilor Sameer Kanal had been locked in a series of tie votes, which earlier in the day led to discussion about challenging the City Attorney’s opinion that the mayor could not serve as a tiebreaker.
Kanal nominated Dunphy after an early afternoon recess. Dunphy received one vote in the 12th round, but it was a vote from Pirtle-Guiney, that signaled a path to break the logjam. Kanal then withdrew his candidacy and endorsed Dunphy, setting up Dunphy to win the 13th round.
The fix was in--and this council plainly doesn't abide by Oregon public meeting law. The key moment: When councilor Smith asked sweetly if the peacocks are a "meeting or a philosophy." Watch the YouTube channel to see Dunphy try to answer. Short version: as of two days ago he was on the city's website signing a statement of insurrection against federal law with the other peacocks. He and Candace Avalos are joined at the hip. He's one of them.
The peacocks made a big show of disappointment--but they won. I'd hate to be a "moderate" on council--nice people such as Clark and Ryan and even Novick should prepare to be steamrollered and have their pet projects drift to the bottom of the agenda.
Dunphy is another DSA loyalist who has never spent a day working in the real world; he's from the city staff, NGO, union bubble. One of the people who have made Portland what it is today.
The real star of the show was Morillo, hunched down behind her screen, snarling and dissing just about everyone else. Will anyone want to do deals with her after her performance of racial-generational-socialist-immigration politics? (Yah. Sure.)
The chaos when Smith tried to get the city attorney to talk straight about breaking the deadlock ought to get someone--anyone!--interested in fixing the charter's mistake and getting rid of four districts/three apiece, elected with 25-percent of the vote.
Good luck. We're stuck with them.