Mean Girls redux

I see the Multnomah County commissioners are busy scratching each other's eyes out while Portland's drug addiction and crime problems continue to spiral out of control. Yesterday's meeting, where they got nasty with each other, was a real embarrassment. There are grammar school student councils that are much better run.

Commissioners proceeded to bicker over procedural issues that seemed to continually hijack discussions— discussions Chair Pederson allocated only 30 minutes for on Thursday.

“We just got your proposal what the night of Tuesday, I didn’t even see it until yesterday morning and then it’s out there, that is not a way to have these conversations,” said Commissioner Meieran.

“And I just want to echo on the time piece I have some comments and questions and my comments and questions alone would take the remaining half hour, so I think we’re going to need more time for this,” added Commissioner Jayapal.

“Until we as a group figure out what is the process to determine our priorities, I think we’re going to be talking in circles… Right now there’s no guard rails we are just like all over the place,” said Commissioner Lori Stegmann. It’s a frustration Commissioner Meieran has echoed for months.

This whole debacle left commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards with just six minutes to share her ideas before the chair cut her off saying they ran out of time. Commissioner Jayapal didn’t even get the chance.

Electing Chevy Vega Pederson as county chair was another in Portland voters' long string of mistakes. She's a disaster and needs to be shown the door while there are still at least some warm ashes where Portland used to be.