Street Roots has weighed in on the mayor's new sidewalk plan, too, in an editorial in today's issue:

On the front end, the plan is fantastic and builds a base for ongoing support for services, such as public restrooms, that are essential not just for people experiencing poverty, but all Portlanders.

Writes the Roots: "the city could choose, through a public education campaign, to engage people on the streets through outreach from social-service agencies and support from the broader community."

We'll see. It would be marvelous if all the energy that was spent fighting the sit/lie could be changed into something more positive, but at this point, I can't help feeling like both sides just need a time out for a year or so until all the controversy blows over. In the mean time, I'd love to see the outreach efforts improving, and of course, broader community support for homeless issues. I'm just pretty cynical about it.

City council is implementing new rules in an attempt to cut down on the length of council meetings. City Commissioners will have to estimate how long they plan to go on for, when they submit an ordinance for review by council, so that people aren't kept waiting all day while certain city commissioners give us their unadulterated biographies before voting. Council will break promptly at 12:30, reconvening at 2:00, to take up any unfinished business from the morning session before beginning the afternoon's session.

Funnily enough, there was a lot of talk at last week’s council session about…who talks the most in council. So, who’s the biggest windbag? City Commissioner Nick Fish certainly led off with a strong start, monopolizing the floor for at least five minutes to talk about all manner of issues—eventually prompting an impatient interruption by City Commissioner Randy Leonard when he complemented a Portland Development Commission board member for being a “pretty good softball player” at a recent game in East Portland.

“You’re saying you want to put a baseball stadium in over there?” asked Leonard, with a wry smile on his face—Fish was an outspoken opponent of Leonard’s plans to bring baseball to Lents earlier this year. “You’re just going on and on and on and on and on.”

It’s true: Fish can be a little verbose at times. But Leonard is no wallflower, either, and Fish interrupted him, three minutes and 41 seconds into his subsequent monologue about PDC, which even went so far as to quote Ronald Reagan. “Mayor, I move to waive the three minute time limit for Commissioner Leonard, and I ask that he be allowed to speak for longer,” Fish said. Touché!

Later, Mayor Sam Adams interrupted Leonard before he could complement a retiring union member. “You let Nick talk whenever he wants,” said Leonard. “I think we’ve all had a lot of time to talk up here,” Adams shot back.

All this piqued my curiosity, so I decided to time the recorded session and see who really spoke the most. In first place, after all, was HURRICANE RANDY: Leonard spoke for 851 seconds, or 14:11. In second place, GALE FORCE FISH: Fish spoke for 532 seconds, or 8:52. In third place, MAYOR GUSTING: Adams spoke for 394 seconds, or 6:34, but then, much of that was time spent officiating proceedings. Then there’s COUNCIL'S MODEST BREEZE: City Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who spoke for 228 seconds, or 3:48. Finally, COUNCIL'S BLESSED LULL: City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who only spoke for 118 seconds, or 1:58.

Unsurprisingly, Fritz and Saltzman declined comment on the numbers. But the mayor said he was “surprised by how much time the public spends listening to us instead of us listening to the public,” yesterday. He added: “Concise decision-making is a worthy cause.”

“I’d offer a comment, but your paper doesn’t have enough space,” said Fish. Meanwhile Leonard was unavailable yesterday but his chief staff Ty Kovatch responded: “Randy is out of town at an all day speaking engagement.”

Meanwhile here's the real essence of long-windedness in action, from last week's hearing:

The new rules will take effect on October 28.

A large group of around 250 city of Portland workers gathered outside city hall this afternoon, shouting repeatedly at city council to "wake up." The rally, organized by unions, marked the filing of three unfair labor practice complaints against the city by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

"The city council have been totally hands off in this," said Carol Justice, a union employee with the city's cable office. "They're just deferring all the decisions to the city attorneys, who are anti-labor, and the bureau of human resources. We're talking about the most liberal council in the country, and yet some of the most serious allegations are being made about labor practices."

The second complaint alleges that the city has failed its obligations to bargain collectively with employees over layoffs made in the recent budget—the city is due to renegotiate its union contract next year. The third complaint alleges the city has failed similar obligations related to the reorganization of its Bureau of Development Services—which has laid off more than half its workforce since July.

City Commissioner Randy Leonard, who oversees the Bureau of Development Services, had a meeting with County Commissioner Judy Shiprack at 11:30 and was not around to watch the march. More than 300 bagged lunches were given out to union workers, and a lot of (delicious) cupcakes were consumed:

After the last one quit Friday. It's Betsy Ames:

We've got a request in for comment from Ames and will update this post as soon as we hear back. Update, 3:30pm: "Nick contacted me," says Ames. "We had worked together previously and I've worked with him in both the community and since he's been city commissioner. This is a good opportunity for me to pull together my experience in a broader role."

Ames has no concerns about the frantic pace of working in Fish's office, despite three departures over recent weeks. "I think each of them had their own reasons for leaving and I don't think workload was necessarily a high factor," she says.

Original post, 3:05pm: In the mean time, here's the lengthy statement released by Fish's office:

On Monday Commissioner Nick Fish announced his appointment of Betsy Ames as his Chief of Staff, effective November 2, 2009. Ames comes to the Commissioner’s office from the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability where she has been the Assistant Director/Senior Planning Manager.

“I’m delighted that Betsy will be joining my office as Chief of Staff,” said Fish. “I first met Betsy eight years ago when we both participated in the Flight for Freedom trip to New York following 9/11. Since then, I have worked with her in my roles as a community volunteer, a candidate, and most recently as a City Commissioner.

“Betsy brings a unique combination of political smarts, operational know-how, policy and program knowledge, interpersonal skills, and passion for making both the city and city government the best they can be. I’m excited she’s agreed to lead my team.”

In January 1995, Ames was appointed as the Assistant Ombudsman for Mayor Katz. Over the next seven and a half years, she went on to serve as a senior policy manager, where she worked as a liaison to the Bureau of Planning, Bureau of Buildings/Office of Planning and Development Review, Parks, and Transportation and led a number of Mayoral initiatives.

In 2002, she was appointed as the Assistant Director for the Bureau of Planning (now the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability). Since that time she’s provided executive-level policy direction for the bureau, worked on housing and legislative issues, and managed several challenging operational matters.

“I’m thrilled to work with Nick, and I ‘m eager to take all I’ve learned over the past 15 years and apply that knowledge on a broader scale and to citywide issues,” said Ames. “I look forward to building on the collaborative relationships I’ve developed inside and outside the City as I take on this new role."

Ames is an active community volunteer as a Board Member and Board President for REACH Community Development, one of the premier developers of affordable housing in Oregon. She is an avid photographer, an international traveler, and a committed bicycle commuter.

City council has this morning voted to approve free all zones transit travel for 9th to 12th grade students in Portland Public Schools. The new "Youth Pass" program for students will be funded with $800,000 from Portland Public Schools, and using up to $2million in tax credits from the state's department of energy, which has a Business Energy Tax Credit program, that gives state money for transportation projects that decrease environmental impacts.

The ordinance was proposed by Mayor Sam Adams and afforded an opportunity for his fellow city commissioners to offer big-ups. City Commissioner Amanda Fritz said she had been shocked for her years as a public schools parent that children were required to pay, in one form or another, to get to school. "Sam Adams is an education mayor," she said. City Commissioner Randy Leonard said both he and mayor Sam Adams had attended public schools, although "unlike me, Sam has kept his hair." Leonard then praised Adams' efforts to ensure that all public school students could participate in the system.

Trimet recently axed its "fareless square" program in downtown Portland, in a move calculated to save just $800,000.

About fifty staff from the city's Bureau of Development Services packed the council chamber this morning to beg council to use general fund dollars to save their jobs. BDS commissioner Randy Leonard announced plans to lay off 150 staff from the bureau in June, but was absent from the chamber this morning because of a previously planned private appointment that could not be changed, according to his staffers.

BDS staffers Marty Stockton (left, below) and Charlotte Phillips took three minutes each to ask city council to use general fund dollars to save some of their jobs. BDS looks after permitting fees, but council waived some of the permitting costs in a deal with Merritt Paulson to renovate PGE park for Major League soccer last month, and other construction in the city has tailed off significantly because of the recession. Another tranche of layoffs is expected to be announced at the end of this week or early next week, to make 150 layoffs so far, with a further 35 layoffs also expected some time over the next three months.

"This city council does not make these decisions lightly," said Mayor Adams, in response. "The chances are we will be cutting budgets again next year."

The mayor said he understood that families are impacted by the cuts and encouraged Stockton and Phillips to "continue to advocate" for their jobs. But there were no promises made.

Both staffers declined comment after their testimony, but another BDS staffer, who would prefer not to be named fearing they will end up on the next list of layoffs, was not charitable about the problems.

"A lot of this could have been avoided if they had been more proactive last year," said the staffer. "I was not surprised to see Commissioner Leonard absent because he has been largely absent from managing and overseeing BDS from the beginning. I was surprised to see the BDS director there, however, because he has avoided managing this issue from the start."

The BDS staffer said several staff-initiated solutions to the layoffs have been rebuffed by management.

"There's just no plan for how to deal with this, and the quality of service to the public is going to suffer," they said.

Update, 1:54pm:

Apologies for the somewhat emotional tone of this post. Sitting in council watching this debated for what even Commissioner Leonard admitted felt like the 20th year was surprisingly frustrating!

The basics: Council voted five-zero to rename 39th avenue as Cesar Chavez Boulevard this morning. Here's what happens now:

The Auditor shall notify owners and occupants of all property abutting the street being
named, affected public agencies, the general public, US. Post Office, emergency services
organizations of the name change through public notice, direct correspondence, and other
appropriate means.

e. The Bureau of Maintenance shall install new street signs showing the new street name
alongside the existing name signs and shall maintain both sets of signs for a period of five
years at the level of maintenance approved for street name signs city-wide

f. At the end of five years the Bureau of Maintenance shall remove the 39th Avenue signs.

That's how you rename a street.

Original post, 11:28am:

Go ahead. Get in your car and feel how this city has changed. Drop out rate for Latinos in high school? Still fucking scandalous. But at least we can take a trip down a renamed street. Oh, Portland...

Council struck some serious tones. There was emotion on display. In fact, you'd think we were voting this morning to embark on a survival mission for Mars.

"Some will perceive this process as having winners and losers, but ultimately we are all winners when we are open to new cultures and perspectives," said Dan Saltzman, voting yes.

"I think it's important to have a discussion about whether we should be renaming streets," said Randy Leonard. "I look forward in the future to having a discussion about the whole topic of street naming changes with the council, but it is not appropriate to have that discussion in this context."

"Chavez was a person who was willing to put it all on the line to fight for what he believed in and there's nothing to me that's more important than that," Leonard continued, voting yes.

"People really care about this, and I am grateful for your passion for this city," said Amanda Fritz. "I believe the process has given me all the information I need to make a decision." She voted yes.

"The process has been marked more by respect than by confrontation," said Nick Fish, voting yes. "It pleases me greatly that there is a consensus here today."

"For my family, we would be honored to live on Cesar Chavez boulevard," Fish continued—he lives on 39th.

"My mother in law Carmen Gomez was born in Cordoba in the South of Spain," said Fish. "Not one single woman in her family had ever attended high school."

He sure does like to talk.

"This particular process was the most rigorous of any that we know of," said Sam Adams, voting yes. "I want to thank the Save 39th Avenue folks who testified at our hearing for the thoughtful and respectful nature of their concerns."

If only all the energy, time and focus on both sides of this issue had been invested elsewhere.

I had to race round the corner for a meeting after writing about this morning's recall submission, but had to rush out to take a phone call from the mayor at 11am, inquiring if I had any questions on today's events. The mayor's staff aren't allowed to speak on his behalf about the recall under elections law, Adams told me. So he was using his personal cell phone to make the call.

"I think Portlanders are a fair minded people," he said, when I asked him what message he had for the citizens of the city. "I'm focused on getting Portlanders back to work, on the high school drop out rate, and on positioning Portland at the heart of the green economy."

Adams suggested Portlanders look at this week's council agenda, which contains "the city's first economic development strategy in nearly a decade," plans for six streetcars built locally, and clean energy work.

But can we really believe Adams is the best person to position Portland at the heart of the green economy, if he was in Wyoming last week when Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood came to town?

"The hard work is getting ink on these deals," said Adams. Adams said he met with Secretary La Hood, and that he's an important man. "But so is Peter, my boyfriend," said Adams. "And this was my first vacation scheduled in six months."

"My focus is not necessarily on sitting in front of the cameras but in getting the funding we need," said Adams. Speaking of which...

IT'S RECALL PREDICTION TIME!

Update: If it helps with your prediction skills, the recall needs to gather 32,183 valid signatures.

There's an overflow chamber next door. So far the hearing has been going for an hour and three quarters. Council isn't even scheduled to vote tonight. The list of folks signed up to speak against the change is longer than the list of people signed up for it.

"Karla, how many more people do we have signed up to testify, more or less?" asked Adams, at 7:47.

"About 140," said council clerk Karla Moore-Love. Laughter.

"There are two ways we can do this, we can shorten the time or we can have a cutoff time," said Adams.

Council moved to shorten the time of each person's testimony to one minute, with a cutoff around 9:30 pm.

There were loud groans in the chamber, with the Save 39th folks seeming to view the change as an obvious attempt by council to silence their dissent. Personally, I viewed the cutoff as an opportunity to finally watch the last two episodes of Breaking Bad when I get home. But it's a question of perspective, I guess.

OPB's April Baer is Twittering the meeting next to me, and most engaging it is, too:

"The divisiveness that this has created is sad," said one Save 39th testifier, a veteran with a deep voice. "When we could honor the man and educate the citizens of Portland and the tourists of Portland by naming a bridge or any other thing."

"Has anybody ever told you you have the voice quality of, like, God?" asked Adams. More laughter. And a little surprise, too. Evidently the mayor is more relaxed following his acquittal by the Attorney General.

"I don't know how I could top that," said the next person up to speak.

"We really have to put some perspective to this in terms of how we live," said Judith Mowry, with the city. "People talk about renaming a street pushing them over the edge. And that concerns me. We have to cope with global warming, a changing economy, all these things."

"It has been a long road to get to where we are today. We have worked hard, learned a lot of lessons and met some amazing people," said Marta Guembes, with the committee to rename the street. "Sometimes it has been hard to endure the hostility...yet I continue to support this cause. I truly believe this is a good thing for Portland. Today I have more than 4000 signatures of people who believe this. If this application is approved, this will bring honor to Portland. Not a disgrace."

"How do you get those seasonal vegetables that you trot out for your party guests?" asked Jeff Cogen's staffer Karol Collymore, who was speaking only for herself. [I spent the last five minutes looking at her food blog, it's been a pleasant diversion]. "The renaming should matter to foodies, but it should also matter to people like me. People who are shades lighter and shades darker. 39 is just a number, Cesar Chavez is about our community."

A few people have applauded, to which Adams has responded: "No, we're not getting into the clapping game, even though it's getting late and people are getting kinda cranky."

Update: After a five minute break, there were just 104 people left on the sign-up list to testify at 8:28.

"We believe that this is a defining historical moment," said the Reverend Doctor Leroy Haynes, from the Albina Ministerial Alliance.

Another person said she resented being called a "racist" for opposing the rename.

"People that oppose this are not necessarily racist," said Adams. "It's getting late at night, and I appreciate that people are getting kind of cranky, but I want to cut off the back and forth that these hearings have gotten into in the past."

"Even though I found out tonight that Cesar Chavez was a vegan, I still think it would be fitting to honor him," said another rename supporter. Yeah! Go, vegans!

In the weirdest testimony so far: Former city council candidate Martha Perez urged Mayor Adams to vote for the renaming of the street because if he voted against it, then he might encourage communities of color to support the recall. Loud boos all round.

Randy Leonard's chief of staff told the Attorney General's office he thought Beau Breedlove was Mayor Sam Adams' "arm candy" when he was first introduced to him in 2005.

The Oregonian is also reporting that Mayor Adams paid Breedlove $750 for a "car repair" and a "down payment on a new apartment" as the rumors began to swirl.

Adams left envelopes for Breedlove with Adams' City Hall receptionist and City Hall security guard between November 2008 and January 2009. Adams said he left $500 with the first-floor security guard in November 2008. Breedlove said he needed the money for a deposit on a new apartment, Adams said.

In December 2008, Adams gave Breedlove another $250. Breedlove said he needed the money to help with a car payment, Adams said.

Here's a "message chart," found amongst the investigation records released by the Attorney General's office this afternoon. It appears to be the public relations strategy behind Mayor Sam Adams' original lies over the Breedlove scandal.