Tom Miller speaking at a conference
in Salem back in April.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

The Willamette Week reported on New Year's Eve that Mayor Charlie Hales has asked Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) Director Tom Miller for his resignation.

According to the Willamette Week, the resignation letter is due on February 4th, which is the day city bureau budgets are due. However, The Oregonian reported today that Miller has already handed in the letter. What this means for the ongoing budget process (which Miller has spearheaded), remains to be seen (Miller will retain his post until February 4th.) Miller has not made any official comment about the news yet, but we're expecting to hear more from him this week.

This move by Hales isn't a complete surprise; but it seems to have been much more abrupt than expected. Back in March while on the campaign trail, Hales told The Oregonian that he didn't plan on keeping Miller around if he won the election. "This isn't personal," he told The Oregonian, "There are major issues in the bureau, and it needs a fresh and fully qualified leader." (Mayoral candidate Eileen Brady also called for a change in PBOT leadership.)
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Bob Stacey has one of the
run-off spots for Metro
presidency all wrapped up.
(Photo © J. Maus)

It's election night and, while I haven't done tons of coverage on all the races, I thought folks might want a place to chime in about what's going on.

Many of the races have been decided, but there's a tight battle brewing for who will be in the runoff for Metro president. Bob Stacey currently leads with 37% with Tom Hughes in second at 31%. Rex Burkholder is trailing Hughes by about 1,400 votes.

UPDATE: Looks like Stacey has one of the spots wrapped up. Hughes is likely to get the other one.

In the other interesting race, City Commissioner Dan Saltzman has avoided a runoff by getting 55% of the vote so far. His closest rival is Mary Volm with just 12%. Jesse Cornett has only garnered 6.9% of the vote so far. More updates are due from Multnomah County Elections Office at 9:00. (more...)