Police Union Says Adams Has Vendetta Against Frashour

Mayor Sam Adams' determination to to keep fired Portland Police Officer Ronald Frashour off the force is "to justify his tenure as police commissioner," Portland Police Association President Daryl Turner said Tuesday morning in a press conference.

"[Adams] has turned this into his personal vendetta," Turner said. He said the mayor is conducting a "politically motivated witch hunt" and "using taxpayer money as his personal checkbook."

Turner's remarks came the day after the the state Employee Relations Board gave Adams 30 days to re-hire Frashour, who shot and killed unarmed 25-year-old Aaron Campbell in the back in 2010.

Adams promised Monday afternoon that if he could gain the support of a majority of city commissioners, he'd challenge the ERB runing in the Oregon Court of Appeals.

Turner said he'll be attempting to meet with city commissioners himself to lobby them against siding with Adams.

Further appeals are a waste of taxpayer money, said Turner, who said that the city's spent "probably over $1 million" to fight Frashour's rehiring. The union boss said the ERB's findings back up those of five other independent bodies who cleared Frashour of either criminal or police policy and training wrongdoings.

According to the Portland City Attorney's office, however, the total amount of money spent by the city in all the Frashour appeals has been $620,000. The city spent $60,000 on the complaint with the ERB, and attorney costs from the date of the initial complaint to the state arbitrator, to the arbitrator's ruling was about $560,000, Adams' spokeswoman Caryn Brooks told WW in an email.

Read about Frashour shooting Campbell here.

"We have a police commissioner and a mayor who is not going to listen to any one else," Turner said.

WWeek 2015