When Pete Souza, the official White House photographer for Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, visits Portland in January, I hope Mayor Ted Wheeler is in the audience.

Souza will be promoting his new book, "Obama: An Intimate Portrait." As his 1.5 million Instagram followers know, Souza has an extraordinary and intimate grasp of messaging.

He has a knack for resurrecting photos from the Obama administration that showcase the lack of dignity in the current one. He recognizes the simple gesture that conveys a world of meaning.

Wheeler doesn't have the same touch. Seventeen months after he chased off Charlie Hales and rolled Jules Bailey in the 2016 primary, the mayor still struggles with messaging, especially when it comes to the Portland Police Bureau.

When he took command at City Hall, Wheeler assigned himself a half-dozen bureaus, including housing and the cops. Commissioner Dan Saltzman immediately questioned that game plan:

"Looking at it from a sheer workload perspective," Saltzman said, "something may need to give."

Say, perhaps, Wheeler's zest for accountability. When the mayor proposed a replacement for the Community Oversight Advisory Board, now defunct, he pitched a group that would meet privately and only report to him.

Commissioner Nick Fish had to bail out Wheeler on the 48-hour rule, which delayed officer statements on the use of deadly force. For far too long, Wheeler subscribed to District Attorney Rod Underhill's argument that such a change in the union contract required a court ruling.

Eliminating the 48-hour rule was one of 52 major recommendations tendered by the Community Oversight Advisory Board over a two-year period.

Tom Steenson, a board member, says he is still waiting for Wheeler to act on the more pointed recommendations regarding mental health, discrimination and racial profiling, and the use of force.

"He said he was going to get back to us. He never did," Steenson said. "He said, 'Why don't you sort them out and tell me which are the important ones to look at?' We worked for two years. They were all important.

"I told Ted the next crisis you have will be a racial-profiling death. You can do things to change that.' And I haven't seen anything yet."

Given the new public-records freeze-out, most reporters in town can relate. Carli Brosseau at The Oregonian/OregonLive waited almost a year for the bureau to deal with what it called the "substantial burden" of a query regarding gang designations.

And when Willamette Week's Katie Shepherd requested emails between six city staffers on the police response to street protests, the mayor's office demanded $2,287 to deliver them.

While "transparency is an essential element of good governance," Michael Cox, Wheeler's spokesman told WW, "collecting and reviewing records can be a time-consuming, and therefore costly, process."

Inspired messaging, that.

Yes, Wheeler is often wedged between a rock and a hard place. When he announced for mayor, there was no anticipating Donald Trump, the dust-up over sanctuary cities, Chloe Eudaly's upset win, or the need to close the balcony in council chambers.

The times are unnerving. The temptation is to be cautious and defensive. When police Chief Danielle Outlaw won't even tell The Oregonian's Maxine Bernstein whether she lives on the east or west side of the river, you realize how far we've come from the days when the chief's forum met twice a month on the 14th floor of the Justice Center, come one, come all.

But that caution doesn't make for memorable policy, politics or photo ops.

"My impression, based on Ted's campaign, is that he thought, 'I'm a smart guy and a bold guy, and I'm not Charlie Hales, so of course I can solve these problems,'" says former city Commissioner Steve Novick.

"He's now learning there are issues that smart, bold people in other cities weren't able to solve - and that 'not being Charles Hales' isn't a solution."

It was a workable start. I still believe that. But if this is meant to end well, Wheeler needs a far better sense of the gestures that inspire confidence and trust.

He needs Pete Souza on his 2018 calendar.

-- Steve Duin

stephen.b.duin@gmail.com