Mayor Ted Wheeler reflects on his tenure and 'need to turn the page' in his career

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is counting down the days. In three weeks, he will be the ex-mayor, having served as mayor of Oregon's largest city since 2017. Before that, he was the Oregon State Treasurer and chair of the Multnomah County Commission.

A sixth-generation Oregonian, Mayor Wheeler's great grandfather, a lumber industry executive, founded the town of Wheeler on the northern Oregon coast.

Almost a year after he announced his intent to not run for a third term, Wheeler returned to Eye on Northwest Politics this week to discuss the mayoral transition and reflect on his tenure in office.

"I've had a good run, but it's been a long run," he said. "I've been in elective office now for 18 years. I did not expect to spend that much time in politics, and I think it's time for new people with new energy, new ideas, to come in and take up from where I'm leaving off. "

Wheeler has been working closely with mayor-elect Keith Wilson on the transition to the new form of government, along with interim city administrator, Michael Jordan, who will stay on for another year. Wheeler said he believes Wilson will have to navigate "a steep learning curve," just like he did.

"You can't anticipate what's going to happen, you can't anticipate what crises you will be in charge of managing. There's a lot of great opportunities for the City of Portland," he noted. "And so my goal is to help him transition well into the mayor's office. He actually has an office right next to mine. His staff is there, we're collaborating, we're working together. We're introducing him to the city leadership. And I want to make sure that on January 1, I can just toss the keys across the table and he can take it from there."

In October, Wheeler announced that city bureaus and departments should consider making 5% to 8% budget cuts. Further, there is a projected $27 million shortfall. Wheeler stated that, while this is not serious in the short term, these requested cuts are to make assurances for the long term.

"In the near term, I think we can protect public safety, police, fire, emergency management," he said. "I hope the council will continue to protect the programs we put into place to address broader criminal activity, like gun violence, like retail theft, like auto theft - and those numbers have improved significantly in recent years - but also support the livability programs like Portland solutions that addresses litter and graffiti."

Portland's reputation and, by extension, Wheeler's reputation as mayor, took a big hit in 2020 during the George Floyd demonstrations. President Trump, who will return to the White House in January, targeted Portland as a place where liberals "destroyed the city." As a result, federal troops were sent in to "restore order" against the wishes of local officials like Wheeler. Despite this, he said he does not know what he could have done differently - with one exception.

"I think what I wish had happened was people could have made the same differentiation that I was between people who were protesting peacefully out there with their families demanding more accountability and some basic police reforms, versus people who were there clearly to commit acts of criminal destruction and violence," he noted. "I was able to make that differentiation early on that I think took the community a little bit longer to see that we were talking about two fundamentally different groups who needed fundamentally different responses."

This also had an affect on Wheeler's personal life and family.

"I was born and raised in this community. I have plenty of friends here, plenty of support and so it was strange to find myself being a true pariah in the community," he recalled. "I had people on the far right saying I was a member of Antifa, and they selectively showed shots from that time I went down to meet with the protesters as proof that I was in Antifa, standing at the gate, attacking the federal building."

He continued, "Then I had people on the far left - those who actually were in Antifa - calling me a clone of Donald Trump. So we had sort of these two completely divergent views of who I was. It was hard to have my home firebombed, to have my daughter threatened and chased to school, to have my tires slashed, to have people standing in front of my house. On some nights, it would be people on the far left. On other nights, it would be people holding rifles in front of my daughter's bedroom window. Nobody should have to put up with that."

Despite the political climate, Wheeler claimed his decision not to run for a third term is a personal one.

"I am burned out. I need time away. I need to recharge my batteries," he said. "I need to turn the page and I'd frankly like to do something different than in politics now for 18 years. That's a lot longer than I thought I would be in elective office. I'll still be involved in the community, but I think it's time for me to turn this over to a next generation of people who have more energy, more ideas, who want to build on the work that we've done and take it potentially in new and exciting directions."

Watch the full interview in the video above.