He may not enjoy the position, but City Commissioner Randy Leonard has found himself square in the middle of the Bob Ball/Sam Adams rumor story. That much has been reported by us and others, but the backstory, which has been floated over deserves its own space.

Leonard and Ball have been close friends for years, through Leonard’s campaigns and even through Ball’s last charter reform campaign, which Leonard strongly opposed. Ball brought his allegations against Adams to Leonard at an August 2nd sustainability fair at Ball’s Wyatt Condominium project where Leonard was showing off the city’s biodiesel vehicles.

“If you’ve got an allegation like this that you’re serious about, you don’t tell me at the end of a biodiesel parade,” Leonard said. Rather, if Ball had a legitimate concern, Leonard added, he should have taken it to the police or child services.

Even though Ball told Leonard to “not tell anyone else,” Leonard says he “did what Ball wouldn’t and didn’t do—ask Sam directly.” Leonard was convinced that Adams’ denials of any wrongdoing were honest, and lacking any substance to the allegations, Leonard told Ball to drop the issue.

Only, Ball didn’t drop the issue. He brought it up again to Leonard multiple times, and Leonard again advised him to not spread the rumor around, since it “will get really bad, not just for Adams, but for [Ball].” As confirmed by many, Ball continued to drop allegations to reporters that he had dirt on Adams that would end his career. And then he told Vera Katz. By the time the Oregonian’s Anna Griffin began working on her profile of Adams (which ran a couple weeks ago), the rumor had already made it around the city, coming to Griffin from someone who was adamant that they didn’t hear it from Ball.

Meaning, Leonard was right in his warning that the more people Ball told, the more it would get around, and all fingers would point back at him.

Leonard now considers Ball a “former friend.”.

On the upside, if Ball and Adams both ran for mayor, Leonard would have been in a bit of a pickle, having to decide on an endorsement between two men he respected both personally and professionally, and considered friends. Not so much a problem anymore.

“Bob just made that decision really easy for me,” Leonard said yesterday.