Tension hung in the air at Portland City Hall Thursday after protesters took over the City Council meeting Wednesday, wearing gas masks, wielding sticks and projectiles and yelling crude comments about Mayor Ted Wheeler's mother.

Commissioner Nick Fish told all employees in his bureaus and on his staff to stop attending City Council meetings, saying the sessions have become too dangerous.

Wednesday's protest was the most chaotic and disruptive to date, but just the latest in a series that are slowing progress of city business.

Protesters have repeatedly shut down Portland City Council meetings, starting months before Wheeler took office. They've obstructed commissioners from executing city initiatives and prevented city staff and community members from speaking on issues.

So far, Wheeler has failed to stop them.

He tried, but failed to quell protesters by starting biweekly open forums where Portlanders can complain about city action and inaction. He introduced and helped pass a controversial rule for removing and excluding disrupters from meetings. He often calls recesses.

But the mayor has stopped short of having incendiary people removed or arrested, a decision that has drawn criticism from city employees, protesters and American Civil Liberties Union Legal Director Mathew dos Santos.

"They mayor doesn't seem to use any of the tools that are at his disposal," Dos Santos told The Oregonian/OregonLive in an interview last week.

Mayoral spokesman Michael Cox said Wheeler wanted to try establishing a code of conduct before resorting to ejecting or arresting people. He sees the latter as an escalation, Cox said.

"The mayor takes the issue of abusive disruptions very seriously and the concerns of his colleagues on the council very seriously," Cox said. "He plans to have conversations with them about how we might better ensure decorum in City Council chambers going forward."

Wheeler called at least three recesses during Wednesday's meeting, interrupted by people who wore mostly black clothing, red beanies, and paper targets. But he never kicked them out.

Cox would not say why.

Earlier that morning, people sported black hoods, hid their faces with bandanas and lofted a banner with a hooded figure's fist and the anarchist "A."

City Clerk Karla Moore-Love said it was the worst day she's seen in her almost 30-year career with the city.

"There's always been bad players," Moore-Love said. "I've never seen so little done about it. The mayor decided we'd just put up with it."

Unsafe work conditions

Citing "unsafe working conditions," Fish directed his bureau employees and office staff to stay clear of council sessions, according to an email obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

"I have a responsibility to maintain a safe workplace," Fish said in a text to The Oregonian/OregonLive. "Council meetings are no longer safe."

Fish's Community Liaison Asena Lawrence called protesters' actions Wednesday a "vicious attack" that made her shake and cry after enduring it for three hours. She said protesters made sexual comments to her while she tried to testify about her Turkish-American heritage before the Council voted to make Portland a sanctuary city. But that's not what made her cry.

"A lot of people who came (to testify) are immigrants and refugees," Lawrence said. "These are already marginalized communities. It was hard to see these community leaders try to interact with these protesters and get flat out disrespected and shouted over."

A Portland security official said he could hear yelling from the first floor of the Portland Building, even though the protesters were in a meeting that took place behind closed doors on the second floor.

Wheeler called the outbursts of protesters on Wednesday "hostile", "abusive" and a "stain on the civic life of our city." He apologized in a Facebook post to people who tried to testify only to get shouted over.

"I am saddened - and frankly embarrassed - by the behavior of many attendees, who were not there to participate in civil discourse but to disrupt," Wheeler wrote.

Marshall Runkel, chief of staff to Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, has attended more than 100 Portland City Council meetings in his current and previous jobs. He said Wednesday afternoon's meeting was the worst he witnessed.

"It was chaos in there," Runkel said.

Protesters have repeatedly shut down council meetings since January, demanding the mayor release information about a black teen killed by police and try harder to prevent homeless people from dying.

They've worn targets on their chests, called the mayor fascist, mocked commissioners' "aye" votes with demonic renderings and laughed when the mayor tried to quiet them. At one meeting, protesters called Eudaly a profane name, which several of her staffers said visibly upset her.

Although typically small in numbers, perhaps a dozen or two, the protesters have had a big impact.

"It has been building," Fish said in a text. "Yesterday was the final straw."

Lack of enforcement

Frequent protester Mimi German started attending council meetings to protest what she called a minimal effort by the city to help Portland's homeless. She said the actions of some of other protesters are ineffective and harmful to her cause, but the protesters have a right to do what they're doing.

German also acknowledged the right of city officials to throw out agitators but condemned the rule the council passed last week that permits prospective exclusions.

"The city council has protocol to throw people out," German said. "Why they don't do that is a question for them. You're supposed to use the protocol that's there, and you're supposed to do your job."

German called the rule passed by the council last week "unconstitutional," and the ACLU agreed.

She did, however, commend the mayor for starting the open forums. She urged him to take the listening sessions a step further by acting and keeping the community informed on those actions.

"To make our government work for us is so difficult," German said. "To be heard is such a necessary step. If his goal is truly to be a better mayor, you have to act."

Fish said he will not allow his staff to return to the council meetings until he is satisfied that they are safe.

The mayor intends to make them safe, mayoral spokesman Cox said. Wheeler does not yet have a new plan to address the disorder, but he will by the City Council meeting next Wednesday, Cox said.

Cox did not specify what that plan is, but said city staff is actively discussing "how best to maintain decorum during council session and efficiently conduct the city's business."

"The mayor clearly stated that the events that transpired yesterday are unacceptable," Cox wrote in a text. "He takes the concerns of our fellow council members and employees seriously. He shares the same concerns."

--Jessica Floum

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