Everywhere man

Sam Adams is running hard for mayor — making friends and enemies along the way

By Nick Budnick

The Portland Tribune, Dec 18, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (52 Reader comments)

As a city commissioner, Sam Adams has been in constant motion promoting ambitious plans for city bureaus. “People expect me to get the job done,” he says.

SARAH TOOR / TRIBUNE PHOTO

Sitting at his table at Pinocchio Bar and Restaurant downtown, city Commissioner Sam Adams looks down at the three plates he’s been picking at for the last 70 minutes or so: an eggplant parmagiana entree as well as the pesto cheese bread appetizer and calamari. For each dish, about two-thirds remain.

“I ordered too much,” he says.

Judging by the events of last week, his push to be elected mayor of Portland while also mounting an ambitious campaign to charge Portlanders more for street repairs may have been a similar case.

Last Friday, he dropped his push for a local gas tax, and days earlier his proposed new street maintenance fee prompted a coalition of business groups to threaten Adams with a referral to the May primary ballot through a “long, costly and highly visible campaign.”

This is not a new place for Adams. Since taking office three years ago, he’s often been described as attempting too much too fast, of sometimes promising more than he can necessarily deliver.

That seems to be one facet of a complex personality that has made many people love Adams, many others dislike him, and others feel a little of both.

To get a sense of what the mayoral front-runner might be like if elected, the Portland Tribune interviewed more than three dozen current and former employees, colleagues and other insiders. Most spoke only off the record, citing fear of retaliation and Adams’ well-known temper. But several spoke publicly about Adams for the first time.

The picture they paint is of a smart, ambitious and driven politician who, in his efforts to pursue a wide-ranging agenda, does not easily take no for an answer. They also show how Adams’ political skills — and even his temper — have helped him advance that agenda, while also making enemies.

His supporters speak glowingly of Adams’ abilities, courage and willingness to take risks.

Over coffee last week Adams’ former boss, Mayor Vera Katz, sounded like a proud mother as she gushed about his abilities and achievements. His record on the council is “heads above anybody else,” she says.

But others raise the question of whether Adams’ agenda is more about helping the city — or himself.

Commissioner Dan Saltzman, for instance, feels that Adams’ relentless advocacy to keep building new streetcar lines is in part because it “intersects with powerful people who can help him” politically — alluding to the developer-dominated board of Portland Streetcar Inc. “You can walk to your destination faster than to wait for the next streetcar,” Saltzman adds.

Adams, meanwhile, says he’s just doing the right thing. “When American households are spending more on transportation costs than they are spending on food, Portland has to get ready for the high prices of peak oil,” he says.

Regardless, Adams now finds himself in a situation that could test his values and abilities. Jim Moore, a political analyst and government professor at Pacific University, says that Adams’ pursuit of his street fee plan in the face of concerted opposition puts the mayoral candidate in an interesting spot.

“It’s both an opportunity and a dilemma,” Moore says. “The opportunity is that he’s the one acting like a mayor right now.

“The dilemma,” Moore adds, “is will he in effect create a big enough target that it will invite someone else of equal political stature to run against him before the March deadline?”

Adams sets a tough pace

In 2004, at the age of 41, Adams ran for the City Council having spent 16 years in politics and government, including 11 as chief of staff to Mayor Vera Katz.

In his November Voters’ Pamphlet statement, he stressed a plan to “end backroom City Hall deals.”

He also accused his opponent, lawyer Nick Fish, of having proposed a new vehicle registration fee; in contrast, Adams pledged to “fight tax/fee increases.”

A footnote on that pledge referred voters to his Web site. There, it said that pledge was in effect only until school funding sources were stabilized.

Regardless, his campaign worked, and once elected, it was as if Adams were everywhere, pushing ideas before the City Council and keeping a grueling schedule that amazed and even worried observers.

Judy Tuttle, who worked with Adams in Katz’s office, recalls warning him that he couldn’t maintain the pace. “I was wrong,” she admits.

At an early staff retreat, Adams responded to employee complaints about the workload by encouraging them to seek other jobs if they couldn’t handle it, former staffer David Gonzalez recalls, adding, “Sam just looked at everyone and said, ‘This is the pace.’ ”

Under Portland’s form of government, the mayor divvies up city bureaus among commissioners for them to oversee. Adams requested the city Office of Transportation; he also received the Bureau of Environmental Services and the Regional Arts & Culture Council, or RACC.

Adams turned each agency into a political asset. Once considered one of the more boring assignments for commissioners, the Bureau of Environmental Services was tasked by Adams with producing aggressive “green street” designs that divert toxic storm water from area streams and rivers.

Adams has pushed for millions of dollars of increased spending on the RACC, set up a pro-arts political action committee, and opened up City Hall as a gallery one night a month on First Thursday, with wine served in Adams’ office.

He turned the Office of Transportation into a bully pulpit to promote streetcars and bike paths, making him a hero to cyclists and environmental advocates. Meanwhile, the development lobby that some politicos privately refer to as “the pavers” applauded Adams’ push for a new Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River.

While his politically advantageous direction of city agencies has sparked cynicism among many observers of city politics, others point out that good politics often make for good public policy.

“He is a skilled politician, and I don’t think that’s a bad word,” Tuttle says.

Politician with a point of view

Asked whether Adams is out for himself or the city, Potter’s former top aide, Nancy Hamilton, says she’s not sure which comes first, but “I’m not sure it matters. I do believe he cares deeply for the city.”

There are, in fact, plenty of examples where Adams has taken on issues that were not all that politically advantageous — many of them esoteric and drawing little or no media attention.

Asked for an example of an issue where he placed the city’s interest ahead of his own political interest, Adams cited his transportation funding program. And several others do as well.

“That is not sexy,” says Adams supporter Michael Powell, owner of Powell’s Books, adding that the push bears political risk as well.

“You don’t see Hillary or Obama doing this type of thing.”

Sam Irving, the former director of the Bureau of Maintenance under Adams, saw the blending of politics and policy up close. Though forced out after a series of critical audits, he has “mixed feelings” about Adams.

“I think Sam Adams has a lot of great ideas,” Irving says. His description of Adams’ style echoed those of other current and former employees of Adams’ bureaus.

For one thing, Adams essentially replaced the bureau spokesman with himself — going on TV for news flashes at all hours, during snow- and rainstorms and other events.

He did so even though reporters complained about delays because of Adams’ intercession, Irving says, adding, “He became the guy who wants to be in front of the camera … I think he wants to project himself as saving the world.”

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