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My concern extends beyond the appropriateness of the relationship; I'm worried about what his orchestrated cover-up (and his attack on Robert Ball) reflects about how he governs.

One of the issues raised by the Willamette Week story is whether Sam Adams' office hired Amy Ruiz, then a Mercury reporter, for a position as a sustainability policy analyst (for which she is unqualified, in a town with many experts on sustainability) -- either as a reward for not pursuing the story or to prevent her from pursuing it in the future. Adams has denied this motive, and in fact denied even knowing his office was hiring Ruiz until she showed up there.

It seems like a fairly implausible claim on Adams' part in any case; knowing now how he has schemed and lied in the past, I have no reason to believe this claim. I can only imagine how this will affect the governance of Portland in the long term, when neither the residents of the city, nor other elected officials, nor Sam Adam's own staff, nor members of the press can distinguished when our mayor is telling the truth and when he is lying, viciously and selfishly.

I was proud to have America's first openly gay mayor. But this is not about Sam's sexuality. It's about his desire to deceive and manipulate, qualities that have nothing to do with sexual orientation but have a lot to do with the ability to serve the city.

posted 3 years, 4 months ago
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