Portland Mayor Sam Adams announced Thursday he will not honor a state arbitrator's ruling ordering the city to reinstate Ronald Frashour as a city police officer.

It marks the first time the city has blatantly ignored an arbitrator's ruling on Portland police discipline.

"It's time to stand up for our own procedures and policies," Adams said. "My view is informed by almost two decades of experience losing arbitration after arbitration after arbitration."

The police union argues that arbitrators' decisions are "final and binding," and is likely to file an unfair labor practice complaint, setting up a hearing before the state Employment Relations Board.

"Arbitrator (Jane) Wilkinson's decision should be the end of this matter," said Officer Daryl Turner, Portland Police Association president. He accused the mayor of pursuing his own political agenda, and jumping to a conclusion early in the case without the facts.

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He said the mayor's move will be costly, noting the already "obscenely high" $750,000 the city has paid outside counsel to defend discipline stemming from the police shooting of Aaron Campbell in January 2010.

Adams, who serves as police commissioner, said he made his decision after consulting with the city attorney's office, and noted Police Chief Mike Reese did not agree with him.

City attorney James H. Van Dyke cited ORS. 243.706 (1) that says arbitration awards ordering a public employee to be reinstated, relieving the employee of responsibility for misconduct, "shall comply with public policy requirements," including policies regarding "unjustified and egregious use of physical or deadly force."

Van Dyke said state lawmakers adopted the statute to limit the discretion of arbitrators and broaden review by the state employment board.

"This is the type of case that statute was intended to address," Van Dyke wrote in a memo to the mayor. "Therefore, the City may seek a determination that the award is not enforceable."

A state arbitrator ruled on March 30 that the city reinstate Frashour with lost wages. Frashour was fired in November 2010 for fatally shooting Campbell, an unarmed 25-year-old African American man, in the back with an AR-15 rifle on Jan. 29, 2010.

Campbell, distraught and suicidal over his brother's death earlier that day, emerged from a Northeast Portland apartment with his back toward officers and his hands behind his head.

Officer Ryan Lewton, who said he was trying to get Campbell to put his hands in the air, fired six beanbag rounds at him. Campbell turned and ran toward a parked car. Frashour fired a rifle shot at Campbell, killing him.

The arbitrator found the city didn't prove "just cause" to terminate Frashour, and that a reasonable officer could have concluded that Campbell was armed, and that when he ran, "there was sufficient evidence for a finding that Mr. Campbell made motions that appeared to look like he was reaching for a gun."

The city's firing was further hampered by testimony from bureau training instructors, who said Frashour acted as trained and within policy.

Adams said this case is worth fighting.

"Our standards for the allowed use of deadly force are more restrictive than national standards and the local standards of other police departments," he said. "Our policy and training requires Portland police officers to use restraint when we receive a call to check on a person's well being, as was the case with Aaron Campbell. I believe Frashour violated our policy and training protocols regarding allowed use of deadly force."

Reese said he respectfully disagrees. "Though I was disappointed and disagreed with the arbitrator's ruling, I respect the binding arbitration process," he said in a statement. "Reasonable people can disagree on difficult issues such as this."

The arbitrator's ruling sparked a protest outside City Hall days later, with the Rev. LeRoy Haynes of the Albina Ministerial Alliance calling the ruling "outrageous."

The last Portland officer fired strictly for use of force was Officer Douglas Erickson in 1993 after he fired 22 shots at an African American man who fled from a bus in North Portland. The wounded man, who survived, had a gun in his waistband but wasn't threatening officers with it when shot, the city argued.

Two years later, an arbitration found the shooting justified after the union argued that the suspect pointed the gun over his shoulder at Erickson, and Erickson got his job back.

After that ruling, former Mayor Vera Katz helped lobby for legislation restricting arbitrators' decisions, particularly the statute that Adams and the city attorney are now citing. Adams worked as Katz's chief of staff.

"I'm convinced this is the case to challenge," Adams said.

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