A curious town, Portland.

Loretta Smith, a Multnomah County commissioner, has been accused of bullying and abusive behavior by, at the very least, two former staffers.

The investigator who plumbed those charges for the county attorney last spring heard evidence of excruciating behavior, much of the testimony from current or former employees who feared "retaliation from Commissioner Smith."

There's more. In Smith's seven years on the Commission, we've seen startling turnover in her office, including at least eight chiefs of staff.

While Smith routinely outspends her colleagues on travel and community sponsorships, she can point to few accomplishments other than her exemplary work in a summer jobs program for minority youth.

She has been dinged by the state for campaign finance violations, and ordered by the county to repay improper expenditures on at least 10 different occasions.

Yet despite all that, Smith is the odds-on favorite to succeed Dan Saltzman in the District 3 seat on the Portland City Council.

In the run-up to a May primary that features two other women of color, Jo Ann Hardesty and Andrea Valderrama, Smith raised almost $74,000 in January, more than twice as much as her four opponents combined.

Tony Hopson at SEI is on board with a campaign contribution. So are former Trail Blazer Kenny Carr, consultant Len Bergstein, and Josh Kardon, the former chief of staff for U.S. Senator Ron Wyden. Cash is also rolling in from Schnitzer Steel, the Local 48 Electricians, and the Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors.

No one is more disappointed by this selective memory and the Smith bandwagon than MeeSeon Kwon and Saba Saleem.

In January 2017, Kwon, Smith's policy advisor, wrote a powerful email arguing that her boss created "a toxic work environment" and used county resources for political purposes.

When Smith told Willamette Week she wanted the Secretary of State to investigate the complaint, adding, "I'm fully confident that I acted appropriately and that the complaint has no merit," Saleem stepped forward.

Saleem, who was born in Pakistan and attended Madison High School, worked as Smith's executive assistant for eight months in 2014 and 2015.

"Day in and day out, I watched you use county resources for your own personal gain," Saleem wrote to Smith in another email that quickly became public. "I watched you treat people as if they are beneath you and always play the victim."

As Saleem added in a Thursday interview, "Our experiences are mirrored. The first thing I thought when I read MeeSeon's comments is that I should have stopped this two years ago.

"I didn't ever want to feel that way again."

The irony and hypocrisy in play here? Smith has long cast herself as the champion of the vulnerable and disadvantaged.

When I asked her Wednesday why she was running for City Council, even as she is term-limited out at the county, Smith insisted, "I want to make a difference for the most vulnerable in our community. I want to fight for those who haven't had an opportunity to prosper."

Young women of color, perhaps? Policy advisors who worry that if they complain about abusive behavior from an insecure boss, they may never score another job in local politics?

A long time ago, Smith may have been in politics for the right reasons. She worked as Wyden's field rep in the county for 20 years. A single mom, she proved a compelling story when she rallied to beat Karol Collymore, another African-American, for the commission seat in 2010.

But she's changed over the years, many agree, and not for the better. Paying the price for that are women like Saleem and Kwon.

Saleem said Smith frequently made "derogatory comments about people of color." She described being cornered by Smith one afternoon in a sixth-floor bathroom: "She was slamming open the stall doors, slamming the counter, screaming at me."

"Her biggest advantage in a small white town is making everything about race, but only when it's convenient for her," Saleem added.

When I asked Smith this week if she has ever acknowledged or apologized for the behavior described by Saleem or Kwon, she said, "There was no substantiation of any of the claims by my employees. There was no wrongdoing found on my part."

Imagine how that echoes for county and city employees in this #MeToo world.

Kwon is happy to set the record straight. "Unsubstantiated? Each investigation substantiated behavior that was abusive, inappropriate, (and) violations of county policy," she says. "Other instances were 'unsubstantiated' because they involved one-on-one interactions. Where do you often bully people? One on one."

Kwon and Saleem both made clear they are speaking out again only because Smith wants to rewrite history in her campaign for higher office.

"It's not a narrative I want to feed into, women of color going against one of our few leaders of color," Kwon says. "(But) If I didn't say anything, there might be another staffer in the future who would go through what I went through."

Especially when, as a city councilor, Smith would lord over entire bureaus, not just an unnerved 4-person staff. How many boosters on the bandwagon are curious to see how that disaster plays out?

-- Steve Duin

stephen.b.duin@gmail.com