Who’s Who In The Portland Protests

City Government

The City of Portland is governed by a mayor and city council. The method of government is the commision-style system, where the mayor and city councilors directly oversee different city departments (police, fire, water, parks, etc.)

Ted Wheeler – Mayor of Portland, Oregon, also Police Commissioner for the Portland Police Bureau (PPB). Wheeler is in a runoff election opposed by Sarah Iannarone, along with write-in candidate Teressa Raiford (founder of Don’t Shoot Portland). Wheeler has been criticized for not being responsive to complaints about police brutality, and has struggled to deal with the continuing protests. (Twitter)

JoAnn Hardesty – Portland City Council member since 2018. Hardesty has been involved in police reform for many years and has petitioned Ted Wheeler to allow her to take over as Police Commissioner to better address police brutality problems within PPB. Wheeler has refused to turn over control of the PPB to Hardesty. (Twitter)

Amanda Fritz – Portland City Council member since 2008. Her portfolio includes the Parks Bureau and the Bureau of Development Services. She has supported Ted Wheeler in his response to the continuing protests in Portland. (blog)

Chloe Eudaly – Portland City Council member since 2016, currently in runoff election, opposed by Mingus Mapps . Her portfolio includes the Bureau of Transportation and the Office of Community and Civic Life . She has been supportive of the protests but opposed to violence at those protests. (Twitter)

Dan Ryan – Portland City Council member since September 2020, just joined City Council after winning special election to fill position vacated by the death of Nick Fish, who died in 2020. Ryan will be in charge of the Joint Office of Homeless Services, the Bureau of Development Services, which oversees construction permits among other duties, and the Portland Children’s Levy.

Chuck Lovell – Chief of the Portland Police Bureau since June 2020, taking over for Jami Resch, who took over for Danielle Outlaw, who left in December 2019 to take over as police chief for the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has been with PPB since 2008. Lovell was made chief after Resch’s handling of the protests after the killing of George Floyd were criticized. Lovell has called for an end to violence in the city and called on elected leaders to “draw a line in the sand and hold people accountable” (Twitter)

Daryl Turner – President of the Portland Police Association (PPA), the PPB union, member of PPB since 2010. Turner has been critical of Portland city government, feeling there is a lack of support for the PPB. The PPA has a petition to support Portland police officers (available at https://www.ppavigil.org/)

County Government

Deborah Kafoury (Multnomah County Commision chair)

Mike Schmidt – Multnomah County District Attorney (took office in 2020) (Portland resides within Multnomah County).

State government

Kate Brown (governor)

Travis Hampton (OSP superintendent), retiring, to be replaced by Terie Davie

Ellen Rosenblum (AG)

Protest Groups

Don’t Shoot Portland

SafePDXProtest

Portland Wall of Moms

PDX Resistance

DefendPDX

PopMobPDX

PNW Youth Liberation Front

Reporters

Justin Yau

Brian Conley

Leslie McL

Sergio Olmos

Cory Elia