Is Leonard licking his chops for the cop shop?

Sources Say

The Portland Tribune, Jun 19, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (6 Reader comments)

On the face of it, city Commissioner Randy Leonard’s recent spat with the Portland Police Bureau over duct tape seemed to dim the chances that Mayor-elect Sam Adams will hand him control of the cop shop.

But Sources Say is more convinced than ever that Leonard is angling for the police commissioner’s job — and is likely to get it, even though Adams says such decisions are a long way off.

Rank-and-file cops were aghast at Leonard’s comments that it amounts to insubordination to not enforce zealously the duct-tape ban he spearheaded. Leonard then added that the bureau has a mind-your-own-business culture that “if ignored, is fraught with potential danger to those who may come in contact with the police.”

Leonard maintains that he’s not sure he wants the police bureau. But why then has he been working overtime to repair relations there?

Leonard has met with key rank-and-file opinion-shapers such as officer Mike Stradley and Detective Pete Simpson to stress that the problem he sees is with management, not regular cops. As he told Sources Say, officers’ “legitimate concerns have been ignored.”

Filling school board post could be interesting process

With the latest news that Portland school board member Dan Ryan is leaving his seat as of July 1 to head the Portland Schools Foundation, at least one wannabe candidate to fill Ryan’s term has come out of the woodwork.

Steve Buel, a retired Portland teacher who served on the board from 1979 to 1983, had tried for a second board term in 2005, only to come in second to Ryan in North Portland’s Zone 4 with 28 percent of the vote.

“I was No. 2 in the race and assume they will appoint me,” Buel said from his home at Hayden Island. “I was outspent 5-1 and only lost 2-1. It’s the will of the people.”

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