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Mayor Ted Wheeler Makes Bureau Assignments for 2021 City Council Wheeler keeps the Police Bureau and Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty keeps Portland Fire & Rescue. Mayor Ted Wheeler is taking heat from all sides, including the women seeking to unseat him. (Zane Fleming) Updated December 23, 2020 Mayor Ted Wheeler today announced bureau assignments for 2021, notably narrowing the assignments he has given himself for the next four years. In Portland s unusual commission form of government, assigning bureaus is one of the greatest powers reserved for the mayor. In the past, mayors have sometimes used that power to punish some fellow commissioners and reward others. In this case, Wheeler spread the bureaus fairly evenly but kept the traditional mayoral job of police commissioner for himself.
by Alex Zielinski • Dec 23, 2020 at 2:01 pm COSMONAUT / GETTY IMAGES
Mayor Ted Wheeler has released his much-anticipated bureau assignments for Portland city commissioners in 2021. The decision one of the rare executive powers of a Portland mayor offers a peek at what roles Wheeler wants his freshman commissioners to take on in the coming year.
Here s the breakdown:
Comissioner Jo Ann Hardesty
Hardesty has been assigned two of the top bureaus overseen by outgoing Commissioner Chloe Eudaly: Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) and the Office of Community and Civic Life (OCCL). The later assignment is most notable, since incoming Commissioner Mingus Mapps is a former employee of OCCL and centered much of his campaign on decrying Eudaly s work in the bureau. This decision shows that Wheeler s cautious about tearing down the work Eudaly put into the bureau, including her contentious proposal to allow other community groups the same
Washington, D.C. Today, the watchdog organization American Atheists denounced Congress for intentionally excluding church/state separation protections from the new $900 billion coronavirus relief bill, H.R. 133, while authorizing special exemptions for religious organizations. As a result, pro-Trump prosperity gospel pastors and other wealthy megachurches will be able to receive a second round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding from a refreshed pool of $284 billion.
According to the bill, “It is the sense of Congress that [the Small Business Administration] properly clarified the eligibility of churches and [religious] organizations for [PPP funding]” (p. 160). The bill retroactively permits the unconstitutional $7.3 billion church bailout under the CARES Act and opens up a second round of funding for religious worship under the current bill.
by Alex Zielinski • Dec 21, 2020 at 3:05 pm City of Portland Archives
[This year s news cycle was a vicious one, and left little time for reflection. As 2020 nears its end, we re taking the opportunity to look back on the most important Mercury stories written during the past year. This article was originally published on to help continue our work into next year and beyond. eds.]
For the past 11 years, City Commissioner Nick Fish s office on the second floor of Portland City Hall has been a reliable junction for lively policy discussions, thoughtful conversations between strangers, and nerdy government jokes. But on Friday, as the community reeled from Thursday s announcement of Fish s death, the lights in his office were off and the doors shuttered.
New dining ban a death knell for restaurants, says leading chef Uncertainty about reintroduction of ban causing anxiety among restaurateurs
Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 16:10 Updated: Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 17:11
“I’m devastated. I couldn’t sleep last night. We still owe Revenue from before the first lockdown and with rent due on all three premises, I don’t know where to go from here.” Galway chef JP McMahon’s comment reflects to mood of a significant proportion of the Irish restaurant industry, now looking at the probability of Covid-19 restrictions being reintroduced at the end of the month.
If restaurants and pubs that serve food are forced to close for indoor dining again after Christmas, McMahon believes it could be a death knell for the industry. “This decision will cause further untold damage,” he says.