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On a third day of debate, the Portland City Council on Wednesday finally chose its next council president: Councilor Jamie Dunphy.
The council voted 9–3 for Dunphy, an East Portland councilor who laid low last year and whose largest policy win was passing an ordinance that changed how the city polices noise complaints.
The decision caps a week of bitter feuding between the council’s progressive caucus, Peacock, and the holdouts against that bloc, who last week spent eight hours arguing over who should become the next president in an increasingly sour debate that devolved into personal jabs and allegations of racism.
Councilor Olivia Clark was chosen as vice president.
The council entered the Wednesday morning meeting with three candidates: Councilors Loretta Smith and Steve Novick, and Peacock’s chosen candidate, Councilor Sameer Kanal.
Two additional votes taken on Wednesday resulted in no winner.
Then Kanal nominated Dunphy.
Dunphy is a member of the Peacock bloc. He said his goal as president would be to weaken the president’s powers and instead share power more evenly across the dais.
“This is not something that I’ve been seeking or something that I’m excited about. I’m willing, not happy, but willing to do this in service of this institution. I worry that the longer this vote stays entrenched, the more damage we do to our collective purpose,” Dunphy said. “I will use this role to distribute power, not consolidate it…The media paints us along party lines, and it’s not accurate. I’ll do everything in my power to make this position less powerful and more of a facilitative role.”
Compared to other candidates—who time and time again over the past week have reiterated how they would run the council, navigate its relationships with the executive and administration branches, and reconfigure committees—Dunphy had to say comparatively little to secure the presidency. By that point—just after 1 pm on Wednesday—it appeared that emotional exhaustion had overtaken much of the council.
The next vote resulted in 6 votes cast for Kanal, 5 for Novick, and 1 for Dunphy. President Elana Pirtle-Guiney cast the lone vote for Dunphy.
The tenor changed after Kanal urged his Peacock colleagues to stop voting for him and to vote for Dunphy instead. One by one, both Peacock councilors and, critically, two of the centrist councilors made it clear they would support Dunphy, and thanked Kanal for stepping down. No one seemed particularly happy about it, including Dunphy.
Responding to concerns from the council’s centrists that a member of Peacock, if elected as president, would feel beholden to do the caucus’s bidding, Dunphy told fellow councilors he would “step away from Peacock.”
“I will not be participating with the Peacock caucus moving forward if I’m elected to this position,” Dunphy said. “I’ll step away from the meetings, from the effort to coordinate.”
He said he had “demonstrated independence” from Peacock before and would not participate in the caucus moving forward.
The 13th vote finally saw resolution.
Nine councilors voted for Dunphy, securing him the presidency.
The lone holdouts were Councilors Loretta Smith and Dan Ryan, who voted for Novick, and Novick, who cast his final vote for Pirtle-Guiney.
“It seems clear that Dunphy is going to be president, and I really look forward to working with him,” Novick said. “In gratitude for the last year of service, I vote for Elana Pirtle-Guiney.”
Pirtle-Guiney, fighting back tears in response to Novick’s lone vote, thanked councilors for choosing her to lead the first year.
With Dunphy presiding in his brand-new role as president, and as the first District 1 councilor to take such a role, he said: “I will earn the dignity of this office...and I will earn the trust of my colleagues. This is going to be a hard year, and I need all of you, and I will do my best, and I’ll make mistakes, and I’ll work with each of you to find what is best for this city.”
Dunphy’s first job as president: run the election for vice president. By an 11-1 vote with little discussion, the council chose Clark to serve as vice president. Clark represents District 4, which covers the city’s westside. She called herself a “reluctant recruit,” much like Dunphy. Clark is not a member of Peacock.
The final vote ended a week of at times caustic discussion among councilors that resulted in hurt feelings, anger and frustration across the dais. It’s unclear how, or if, some of the relationships injured by the last week will be repaired.
