A Portland civil rights icon delivered some choice words to the City Council on Wednesday over the body’s propensity for infighting and rhetorical bomb throwing during public meetings.
“I don’t want to see you paid to bicker. I don’t want to pay you to call one another names or disparage one another,” said Kathleen Saadat, 85, a leader in the city’s Black and LGBTQ+ communities for more than five decades. “We elected you to govern. We hired you to set policy.”
Heated exchanges have been a hallmark of Portland’s often divisive 12-member council since the city’s new form of government went into effect last year.
Yet the verbal invective appeared to reach a fever pitch late last month as a debate over dueling proposals to restore dozens of city jobs devolved into political threats while one councilor — Angelita Morillo — leveled a series of “daddy” innuendos after Mayor Keith Wilson cast a tie-breaking vote…