Portland City Council will not elect a new leader until mid-January after a planned vote Thursday was tabled following news of an East Portland shooting involving federal law enforcement officers.

The shooting, which wounded two people in the Hazelwood neighborhood, took place roughly 20 minutes after city councilors met to elect a new council president Thursday afternoon. City Council immediately went into recess after hearing the news.

The meeting followed a seven-hour-long Wednesday session, where councilors remained deadlocked in a 6-6 vote on which of their colleagues to give the president’s gavel to. The heated debate largely pitted City Council’s more progressive councilors, who nominated Councilor Sameer Kanal, against its more centrist ones, who wanted last year’s Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney to retain her role.

Councilors had little time to work on a compromise Thursday. After a brief discussion, Pirtle-Guiney abruptly recessed the meeting. She and her colleagues returned to the dais an hour later.

“I’m sorry to be delivering this news today,” Pirtle-Guiney said, sharing scant information about the shooting. “We are still waiting for more details, but needed to pull councilors to get a briefing and an update so that we could ensure that we were prepared to respond.”

She noted how, a day prior, federal officers fatally shot a woman named Renee Good in Minneapolis. “We are all holding both Ms. Good’s family and the families of these Portlanders as we sit here today.”

She then turned back to the topic of the president’s race. But several of her colleagues pushed back.

“I’m struggling to sit here right now,” said Councilor Jamie Dunphy, one of three councilors who represent District 1, which includes the Hazelwood neighborhood. “My initial instinct was to not let a tyrannical federal government prevent the city from doing the work that we need to do, but I’m struggling to feel that I’m able to give this job or this task at hand my full attention right now.”

Councilors agreed to reschedule the vote until Jan. 14. Pirtle-Guiney will remain council president in an interim role until that point.

One of the focal points of Wednesday’s meeting was how a council president would help improve and stabilize different areas of the new city government in its second year.

Before the meeting ended Thursday, Kanal pointed out the necessity of this work and council cohesion — which was largely absent at Wednesday’s meeting — in moments of crisis.

He said it was vital that councilors figure out how to work together, especially because of its need to react to Trump administration actions.

“I think what we’re dealing with today highlights the importance of us getting organized, the importance of us getting structures and processes in place that are resilient and can respond rapidly to situations as they arise,” said Kanal.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/01/09/portland-council-president-vote-on-hold/