Vulgar insults hurled. Name calling. People shouting out comments while others had the floor to speak. Repeated demands for the meeting to come to order. Frequent breaks in board action to avoid an escalating crisis.



That pretty much summed up Thursday night's meeting of the Portland Community Oversight Advisory Board, a group created to monitor police reforms required by the federal government.

Nearly a year and a half after it was set up as part of a settlement agreement that the city reached with the U.S. Department of Justice, two leaders of the board have resigned. Members are frustrated by lack of feedback from Justice officials to a host of recommendations they've made about police policies, training and oversight. And the public feels further alienated.



"This is ridiculous," outgoing chair Kathleen Saadat mumbled before calling a break when several attendees approached the roped-off barrier set up in front of the board members' seats and yelled at one of the members while filming on video cameras or phones.



"It has been broken at every point," Teressa Raiford of Black Lives Matter said of the board's operations.

What was billed as a unique experiment -- a community oversight panel unlike any other created in the country to keep tabs on police reforms and make its own recommendations -- has turned into one big mess.

City Commissioner Amanda Fritz stood to address the board, thanking outgoing chair Saadat for her work and board members for volunteering their time. Saadat is resigning as board chair, effective June 24.

But when Fritz continued, adding, "Where we were a year ago, and where we are today, we've made a lot of progress,'' she was drowned out by loud laughs and cackles from the crowd. Fritz had helped organize the board, overseeing the application process for board members.

Even members of the board -- who in late April had sent the mayor and the police chief a letter demanding that the city get rid of the controversial police 48-hour rule -- voiced dismay that they hadn't received a meaningful reply.

"There's been no response,'' Saadat said.

When the mayor's policy aide Deanna Wesson-Mitchell tried to tell the board that the rule -- which allows a two-day delay before police internal affairs investigators can interview officers involved in deadly shootings -- is part of the police union contract and can't just be removed without negotiations, someone in the crowd shouted, "You all don't have no power!''

The only meaningful discourse that occurred Thursday night was the message sent by board members and public speakers to Chicago-based academics Dennis Rosenbaum and Amy Watson, who were hired by the city to serve as compliance officers and provide regular updates on the Portland Police Bureau's adherence to reforms.

The reforms are outlined in the agreement that stemmed from a 2012 U.S. Justice Department investigation, which found Portland police engaged in a pattern or practice of excessive force against people with mental illness or perceived to have mental illness. The investigation also found that stun gun use by officers was unjustified and excessive at times.

In their most recent report, Rosenbaum and Watson were criticized for noting the Police Bureau was in "partial compliance'' with certain reforms even though it was clear no steps had been taken to accomplish them.

The Community Oversight Advisory Board is supposed to meet at least twice a year with the police chief, noted Dan Handelman of the watchdog group Portland Copwatch.

"That has never happened,'' he said, yet the latest report by Rosenbaum and Watson graded the bureau's compliance with that requirement as partially met.

"If there's lack of honesty, we're going to push the communities away from us,'' said resident Deborah Harris.

Rosenbaum acknowledged that "there's still issues about getting everyone involved,'' referring to the bureau's top command staff.

Police Chief Larry O'Dea has been on paid administrative leave since May 24, facing a criminal investigation by state police and the Oregon Department of Justice for an April 21 off-duty shooting of a friend while camping in Harney County. The Harney County sheriff said O'Dea, described in reports as smelling of alcohol with bloodshot eyes, misled a deputy into thinking the wounded friend had accidentally shot himself.

"We want to encourage the Police Bureau to continue to reform itself,'' Rosenbaum said. "This process is a lot slower than we thought it would be.''

Then the session got personal.

Kif Davis, who had been escorted from the meeting in the past for filming board members and was the one who prompted the board's chair to set up a restricted area for public filming of its sessions, demanded an apology from board member Bud Feuless, who had described Davis on Facebook as a skinhead.

Feuless came back from a break and apologized to the board for the Facebook post. Addressing fellow board members, Feuless said, "It was a huge mistake, and it has created a huge distraction, so I need to apologize to you for creating that distraction, for my mistake.''

"I apologize to anyone'' who was traumatized by "that word, skinhead,'' Feuless added.

But Feuless' obvious avoidance of apologizing directly to Davis made Davis even more agitated and drew harsh taunts from Davis and his supporters. Davis said he's "a Jewish guy with mental illness," not a skinhead.

By the end of the evening, uniformed police officers had escorted two people out of the room who continued to create disruptions, Davis and local activist Laura Vanderlyn. They were both accused of second-degree criminal trespass.

"The facilitator is supposed to be facilitating conversation with the public, but that's not what's happening,'' Vanderlyn said. "The board and the public is constantly being censored. We need real leadership.''

Unable to regain control, Saadat adjourned the meeting shortly after 8 p.m.

The board never got to any real discussion of its last agenda item: "COAB priorities, and the work moving forward.''

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian