City Auditor Gary Blackmer appears to have washed his hands of responsibility for the so-called Independent Police Review.

Mayor Tom Potter has announced on his website this morning that he “will be asking Council to temporarily assign the IPR to the Mayor’s Office in order to step back and take a look at how IPR is working and determine if changes need to occur.”
BLACKMER (center, with beard): Now also absolved from responsibility for police oversight, like his colleague, former IPR Director Leslie Stevens (right, playing “catchy”) who took a job with the police bureau in January…

Super. The news follows a protest at City Hall yesterday over the mayor’s decision to delay a public hearing on a controversial report about the IPR until after March 18, when council will decide on a way forward without hearing public testimony.

“I do not believe the Mayor’s Office is the proper, permanent home for IPR, but it is the most appropriate during this review,” writes Potter, in his statement.

Police oversight activists have been arguing that the mayor should establish an independent office separate from city hall, with its own legal counsel, for IPR, to avoid any apparent conflicts of interest between effective investigation of police complaints, and the city saving money on lawsuit payouts.

Auditor Blackmer has been blustering about his role as IPR boss over recent weeks. Shortly before a consultant’s damning report on IPR came back to council, he told this Mercury reporter: “You’re despicable,” and “Fuck You” after we pushed him for a substantive response to a difficult question.

City Commissioner Randy Leonard stuck up for Blackmer, arguing that the mayor, as police commissioner, was trying to scapegoat Blackmer with the report. It was Leonard who first suggested the mayor take control of IPR. Leonard insists this was his idea, not Blackmer’s.

“It’s clear from Blackmer’s response to the consultant’s report that Blackmer is not the person to be the running the IPR,” says Dan Handelman. “I think he showed at the very least he doesn’t understand what the community wants a citizen review board to do, and at worst he showed contempt for the citizenry.”

In his response to the consultant’s report suggestion that the citizen review board tell the IPR director when to conduct independent investigations, Blackmer wrote on his website: “I was elected to serve the citizens of Portland, not to have my judgment and expertise over-ruled by a committee appointed by council.”

Touchy!

“On the one hand Blackmer is saying the citizens had great judgment putting him in this office, but on the other he is saying he doesn’t trust them to decide when police misconduct needs independent scrutiny,” says Handelman.