Vega's check engine light comes on

Here's a spectacular story, unfortunately dumped at 3 o'clock on a Friday afternoon. Sam the Sham Adams, who's running for Multnomah County commission, has gotten two lawyers from the state's biggest, baddest law firm (where I once worked) to write a memo saying that the county chair, Jessica Chevy-Vega, is breaking state law by keeping a stranglehold on the commission agenda. According to the memo, which presumably was paid for by Adams or somebody in his camp, the county rules under which Vega controls the agenda give her a veto power. And that violates the county charter, the attorneys say, so it's unconstitutional.

Well, ha ha! Touché! Good luck trying to get a judge around here to do anything about it, but the legal beagles do seem to have a point. They have a lot of smart people up there.

Sammy Boy gave their memo to the O, who wrote about it behind their Paywall of Pity, and the reporter has confronted the county lawyers with it. The county lawyers say it's the first they've thought about the question, and they'll think about it some more. Yes, please do.

Anything that busts Vega's chops is gold in my book, but coming from Adams, it's worrisome. He's only doing this to help himself in the election. If you don't like what's going on in Portland, Adams, who's been in local government almost his entire adult life, is not the answer. He's pretty good at getting himself elected, or hired, but he has a lot of trouble getting anything done, or keeping a job for very long. And there's always something creepy lurking just below the surface of his act. Not the mention his record as a one-term Portland mayor. The arts tax. The leaf tax. The intern.

Bravo to him for turning up the heat under the buffoonish county chair, but please, if his race is in your district, vote for Jessie Burke, not Adams.