Portland's Peacock caucus splits
Three City Council members are stepping away as group faces ethics investigation
At the moment of its greatest triumph, the progressive Peacock caucus on Portland City Council is unraveling. A week after one of its own, District 1 Councilor Jamie Dunphy, was elected president of the council, the caucus is losing half of its six members, the NW Examiner has learned.
Dunphy pledged he would withdraw from participation in the caucus should he be elected president, and District 4 Councilor Mitch Green told the Examiner he would honor a statement about stepping away from the caucus that he made during the contentious election process, which consumed three council meetings and 13 votes.
The other defector is District 3 Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane, according to District 4 Councilor Olivia Clark. Koyama Lane did not respond to a request for comment.
Clark, the council’s new vice president, welcomes the decline of the six-member voting bloc.
“I think that is [as a pivotal voting bloc] coming to an end,” she told the Examiner. “I hope it does.
“That did not serve the city very well, and I think the Government Ethics Commission is looking into that.”
Without naming anyone, she expressed strong disapproval of some of her colleagues.
“I was surprised that there were people who got elected,” she said. “They came in with a pretty angry attitude about the mayor, about the administration, about city government, about whatever it is. They were just angry.”
The commission is investigating whether the six councilors violated public meetings law when they met for a private retreat in August. Five are under investigation for accepting pro bono legal counsel from an attorney who regularly represents clients who protest against the city.
You are right, and they could vote as if nothing has changed.
But this shows that they do not want to be publicly and politically identified with their old team and brand. Next thing you know, their leader will be throwing radical protesters out of council meetings. ... Oh, wait.
Hopefully none of us forget come voting time that Mitch Green has been a part of this absolutely detrimental group for his entire time in office and is now only distancing himself in a performative way to avoid investigative and election season repercussions. He’s already lost my vote and there’s nothing he can do to get it back.