Editorial: What’s At Stake In The Mayor’s Race

Portlanders worked hard for a better form of government. Without the right leader, we’ll be stuck in a rut of dysfunction. by The Mercury Election Strike Force

Portland is at a pivotal juncture. The city is poised to boost its tourism appeal by welcoming a new professional women’s basketball team and potentially a baseball stadium while simultaneously scrambling to build more housing and shelter space. All of this will happen with a brand new governing system and new elected leaders at the helm.

There’s a lot on the horizon, but as we start to recover from the economic hit and social unrest of the pandemic, some candidates would only serve to set our city back. 

We’ve seen inklings of that in the leadership style of Rene Gonzalez, a current city commissioner who’s eyeing the mayor’s seat. During his nearly two-year tenure on council, Gonzalez has said a lot, but accomplished little.

In a recent mayoral debate, Gonzalez claimed he “banned the distribution of tents and tarps.” Despite his repeated pleas for a county-wide ban on tent and tarp distribution, that’s not entirely accurate. What he did was prohibit Portland Street Response (PSR) from distributing tents and tarps to unhoused people–who comprise the majority of the population PSR interacts with–amid a severe winter storm in 2023. The move, done under the guise of “fire danger” triggered immediate public backlash and tanked employee morale within the alternative response program. At least one employee quit. The program is still restricted from handing out those life-saving materials.

An audit released later that year depicted PSR as a potentially successful program that was flailing, mostly due to a lack of clear vision and leadership. At the time, the program was housed within the fire bureau, which Gonzalez oversaw until July. When a volunteer group gathered more than 10,000 signatures begging Gonzalez to save the alternative response program from further budget cuts, he refused to meet with them.

During his tenure, Gonzalez oversaw the Community Safety Division, which includes the region’s 911 system. The emergency response system has been plagued by long hold times for 911 callers and increasing response times from police and firefighters. The average response time for a high-priority call jumped from 12.4 minutes in August 2021 to 24.3 minutes in 2024, increasing steadily year-over-year.

Rather than immediately focus on increasing the capacity of the local 911 system, Gonzalez blamed the public. He noted skyrocketing call volume over the past few years and repeatedly urged the public to avoid calling 911 unless it was truly an emergency. But the city commissioner ignored his own advice, calling 911 in January to report a “light assault” on him while riding a TriMet MAX train. Surveillance video showed a woman on the train grazing his shoulder (if at all) and trying to engage in dialogue with the elected official. 

While efforts were made to increase dispatch staffing, the knee-jerk reaction to discourage people from calling 911 sent a chilling message to the public about basic, critical services.

Public safety aside, Gonzalez has repeatedly shown a lack of compassion or real leadership when it comes to Portland’s homelessness crisis, instead showcasing willful opposition to any solutions that don’t involve sweeps, jail, or fines, regardless of shelter capacity. 

Earlier this year, Gonzalez, a former attorney, was the lone voice calling for stiffer penalties for violators of a new homeless camping ordinance. His preferred policy ignored public input, and challenged advice from the city’s own attorney. 

It seems he considers homelessness and addiction–critical issues impacting the city–moral failings that require “tough love” and an end to “enablement” despite acknowledging that Portlanders pay some of the highest housing costs in the nation. His policy proposals are devoid of any new plan to increase shelter capacity.

Recently, he floated the idea of slapping bright yellow labels on county-issued tents, in a move that would only serve to further demonize and stigmatize the region’s most vulnerable residents. Shall we start making kids who receive free school lunches use a different color cafeteria tray while we’re at it?

The commissioner’s actions during the council’s adoption of the new camping ordinance demonstrated an inability to truly listen or consider diverse opinions. We’ve seen the same behavior routinely on display, particularly with his Trump-like penchant for labeling anyone who questions or criticizes police behavior an “extremist” or “abolitionist.”

He’s repeatedly called for the city to stop “platforming abolitionists” by allowing police critics to speak at public meetings. No one should have to explain to an elected official that you can’t stymie someone’s right to speech just because you don’t like what they’re saying. But Gonzalez has a habit of trying to stifle voices and facts that displease him.

In fact, he’ll even use your tax dollars to do it. The commissioner used thousands in taxpayer dollars to scrub his Wikipedia page of facts that he considered damaging to his reputation and campaign.

What’s most frightening about Gonzalez’s bid for mayor is his disdain for the very system of government that he’d be operating under. He was one of two commissioners who tried (and failed) to block key aspects of the new city charter, including the new ranked choice voting system. Gonzalez also advocated for the new mayor to have veto powers to overturn legislation passed by council. None of it materialized, thankfully, but Gonzalez has signaled he’d use the mayor’s seat to the fullest extent of its powers. That kind of leadership style signals a person who’s more likely to work against council than with it.

Gonzalez isn’t the only city commissioner vying to be mayor. Mingus Mapps was the first on council to announce his mayoral campaign over a year ago. While there’s nothing overtly egregious about Mapps’ tenure in office, there’s nothing remarkable about it either. 

To his credit, Mapps tried to drum up financial support for the city’s struggling transportation bureau with increased parking fees and enforcement. But he also misled the public on critical projects. Last year, Mapps reportedly approved a plan to strip away a newly installed bike lane on Broadway Boulevard and revert the lane back to an unsafe design for cyclists. The plans were covertly underway, without the public’s knowledge. Mapps then lied and said there were no “imminent” plans to revert the bike lane, but internal memos contradicted that. 

Another low point in Mapps’ tenure came last spring when the commissioner asked Council to rescind funding from a local Black-led organization working to dismantle systemic racism. The reason? Mapps said they never spent the money like they promised. As it turned out, the group never received the funds from the city. It was an embarrassment that could have been avoided if Mapps or his bureau leaders had just had a single conversation with the group or bothered to check with city staff to ensure the money was granted.

Mapps should get credit for distancing himself from the debacle of the attempted charter reform sabotage launched by Gonzalez and Commissioner Dan Ryan, but he was the first on council to suggest he could come up with a better version of a reimagined city charter than what the ballot measure called for. 

There’s a lot at stake. If the next mayor can’t unite the city in a shared vision and work collaboratively to move us forward, we’ll be stuck in the same rut of dysfunctional government Portlanders worked so hard to fix. 

The Mercury Election Strike Force is Wm. Steven Humphrey, Courtney Vaughn, Taylor Griggs, and Suzette Smith.