Activists involved in pushing for Portland police reforms Thursday blasted the mayor's plan to create a new commission, intended to promote better relationships between police and the community, that would meet behind closed doors twice a month.

They argued that the proposed Portland Commission on Community-Engaged Policing, to be made up of five to nine members selected by the mayor, would cut the public out of meaningful police oversight and reduce representation from a diverse group of representatives.

It would further diminish public trust in the city's efforts to reform the Police Bureau and runs counter to the goal of the city's settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, they said.

The settlement stemmed from a 2012 federal investigation that found police engaged in a pattern of excessive force against people with mental illness and required a wide range of changes to police policies, training and oversight.

Though Mayor Ted Wheeler's plan also calls for the commission to hold quarterly town hall meetings, members of the Albina Ministerial Alliance, the National Lawyers Guild, Disability Rights Oregon, the NAACP of Portland, Mental Health Association of Portland, Portland Copwatch and other local activists said that would still be woefully inadequate.

Having only the mayor, who also serves as police commissioner, oversee the new commission could politicize the group and its actions, many speakers said. It also unfairly cuts the rest of the City Council out of an important role, some said.

Jo Ann Hardesty, president of the NAACP's Portland chapter, called the plan "a smack in the face to community members who want accountability, who want justice.'' Hardesty said it appears as if the proposed commission would serve as a "PR group to gather to sell to the community what a great job PPB is doing.''

Kathleen Saadat, who resigned as a moderator for the now-defunct Community Oversight Advisory Board that was set up under the settlement agreement, also criticized the replacement plan.

In a letter submitted to the council, Saadat wrote that the new commission would not meet the intent of the settlement, which she said was to facilitate community input into drafting and reviewing Police Bureau policies subject to the settlement.

"The city could hire a consultant to hold quarterly round tables and get input and recommendations from the community, if that is all the city wants from the community,'' Saadat wrote. "I want the community to be involved in shaping community concerns and community recommendations into policy.''

The Rev. T. Allen Bethel, chair of the Albina Ministerial Alliance, said the proposed structure of the new commission limits transparency.

"Closing the door is not fixing the problem,'' Bethel said.

Jan Friedman, a lawyer with Disability Rights Oregon, picked up on the theme.

"How is that including the community? Maybe it's messy. It's more difficult. To require that sort of engagement, that's more challenging,'' Friedman said. "Slow down and allow adequate community involvement. You can't just handpick five to seven people and think that's community involvement.''

Wheeler defended the plan, calling the city's experiment with the Community Oversight Advisory Board a failure, noting its meetings often devolved into shouting matches with members feeling harassed or threatened.

He said his proposed commission "will turn what was previously chaos into credibility.'' Members of the new commission will get the training they need, and responses to their questions or recommendations that they deserve from the police chief or mayor.

"We can quibble about it being a public body or not being a public body,'' Wheeler said. "This is specifically done so it will have public engagement at least once a quarter, which is consistent with many other boards.''

Nicole Grant, the mayor's senior policy adviser, said the commission's mission would be twofold: recommend strategies for better community engagement and serve as a liaison between the public and the Police Bureau.

Commissioner Chloe Eudaly offered amendments: increase the commission to from nine to 11 members, allow other city commissioners to be involved in selecting the members, ensure the group's agendas and meeting minutes are published on a website within 30 days.

A second proposed ordinance also received criticism. The ordinance calls on the city to approve a policy that would require the Police Bureau to compel officers who use deadly force to talk to internal affairs investigators as soon as practical, preferably in less than 48 hours after a shooting. But the policy wouldn't go into effect until a court could validate it as constitutional.

Lindsey Burrows, at attorney with the National Lawyers Guild, urged the city to put the policy in place immediately instead -- and either wait for someone to challenge it in court or simultaneously seek a court ruling to validate it.

"Let's compel testimony and seek a court ruling and not wait around,'' she said, considering how infrequently officers are indicted for using deadly force.

Constantin Severe, director of the city's Independent Police Review Division, said he's embarrassed that the officer who fatally shot Terrell K. Johnson on May 10 wasn't interviewed by an internal affairs investigator until six weeks later, based on the Multnomah County district attorney's advice for the Police Bureau to hold off compelling such statements until completing a criminal inquiry.

"That is something I am ashamed of as a city employee,'' Severe said.

In a March memo to police, District Attorney Rod Underhill said he's concerned that forcing an officer to give an internal affairs statement in a policy review of the shooting while a criminal investigation continues could result in the officer being granted immunity from prosecution. He asked that internal affairs not compel any officer statements in deadly force cases until he gives the go-ahead and until after the criminal investigation.

The six-week delay in the Johnson case is in stark contrast to the compelled statement obtained from the officer who fatally shot 17-year-old Quanice Hayes earlier this year, which internal affairs got within 26 hours of the encounter, Severe said.

The speedy interview is what drew Underhill's heightened concerns. That led to a meeting with Oregon's U.S. attorney, federal Justice officials and city lawyers -- and led to the Police Bureau's revamped approach based on Underhill's advice.

Thursday night's hearing lasted nearly five hours, with the mayor's invited panels of speakers taking up the first two hours. The balcony of the council chambers was closed to the public, but two overflow rooms in City Hall were opened with live feeds. City officials had extra security, including several deputy U.S. marshals, standing in council chambers and in the corridors of City Hall.

The police-related ordinances will go before the City Council for a second reading at 1 p.m. next Wednesday.

-Written testimony from National Lawyers Guild

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian