Portland Bureau of Transportation Director Millicent Williams attended a conference in Saudi Arabia from December 7 – 9.
Williams participated in a panel at CoMotion Global ’25, an event held in the city of Riyadh that, “connects the brightest minds, cities, and companies shaping the next chapter of transportation — globally.” Her panel was titled, “Managing Cities in the New Age of Data” (you can watch it here). The front page of the event website features a TriMet MAX train in downtown Portland.
According to an official press release, CoMotion Global is supported by, “key Saudi government partners shaping the Kingdom’s mobility future.”
Traveling to Saudi Arabia as a representative of the City of Portland is likely to give many Portlanders pause. The country’s government has an abysmal human rights record and they use major conferences, along with sports and entertainment events to whitewash their actions.
In 2018, men working for the Saudi government murdered a Washington Post journalist who had been critical of the ruling family. Cracking down on free media is just one black mark against Saudi Arabia. Amnesty International’s list of 10 ways Saudi Arabia violates human rights includes mass executions, discrimination against women, unfair trials, lack of free speech, and a law against public protests.
But the first thing I thought about when I learned Williams was helping Saudi Arabia burnish their international reputation, was the killing of Fallon Smart.
In August of 2016, 20-year old Abdulrahman Noorah drove recklessly down the center lane of Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard at a speed police estimated at 55-60 mph. As he approached SE 43rd Ave, he ran into 15-year-old Fallon Smart. She died in the street. Smart’s death sparked widespread outcry and sadness in our community. I recall crying in the street as I tried to cover a memorial event with Smart’s family.
Two weeks before Noorah would face justice at a court trial, men working for the Saudi government helped him escape the country and he’s never been seen or heard from since. That episode remains a very deep open wound for many in our community, and Williams’ attendance at this event does nothing to help with the healing.
According to PBOT Communications Director Hannah Schafer, “The conference paid for Director Williams’ travel and accommodations, and her travel was reviewed and approved by City Administrator Michael Jordan.”
UPDATE, 12/11 at 7:00 pm: A post on Williams’ personal LinkedIn page that said she was “excited” to attend the conference was deleted following the publication of this article.
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Agreed!!
It’s disgusting that she went there. I expect (but do not forgive) that kind of thing from the current administration and it is horrible to see that the City Council and the Mayor were okay with her going to Saudi.
With all that Jonathan mentioned, slavery (fully legal until 1962 and still ongoing) , slave like conditions and sex trafficking is still something that goes on there.
No conference or event is worth a representative of Portland or Oregon going there.
https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/country-studies/saudi-arabia/
https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/12/04/die-first-and-ill-pay-you-later/saudi-arabias-giga-projects-built-widespread
http://www.gvnet.com/humantrafficking/SaudiArabia.htm
Just a few of the many articles.
Unfortunately, slavery, slave like conditions, and sex trafficking are all too common in the USA too, particularly in our (legal) government-sanctioned prisons since 1865 (license plates anyone? Firefighting in California?). It’s been a regular criticism of our human rights record by numerous NGOs worldwide including in the USA.
I guess it’s all right, then? What strange bothsidesing, David.
If the alternative to “bothsidesing” in the human rights arena is to “onesides” or “nosides” it, put me on team “bothsides”.
Of course you will anyway. If there’s one thing folks around here hate it’s nuance and complexity.
I mean, we’re not talking abstract with this specific topic. Do you really think Saudi is on par with the States as far as human and specifically queer and gender rights?
Doesn’t matter if they’re on par with each other if both are unacceptable.
The hypocrisy of an american complaining about another nation’s human rights record is infinite. Look to your own morally-depraved society that condones/tolerates torture, mass-murder, and war crimes before pointing the finger elsewhere.
People ARE looking at our human rights records and trying to hold our City employees/elected officials accountable- that is the point of this article, IMO
Many people in Portland — and the local elected representatives who want to stay in office — do quite a bit of looking to, and complaining about, and protesting human rights abuses by the American government. You may have noticed quite a bit of that lately.
If local governments boycotted events in North Carolina over their 2016 anti-trans “bathroom bill” (House Bill 2), why wouldn’t we demand our electeds not attend Kingdom-sponsored conference in Saudi Arabia where they execute gay people?
Thanks for bringing attention to this shameful appearance of a city employee at a mobility event funded by a petro state. Makes me wonder if she was on the clock or off, if she received an appearance fee, and who paid for her travel. How is lending a veneer of legitimacy to the Saudi government appropriate for a senior city employee?
Well clearly she was on the clock because she was representing PBOT. But City of Portland didn’t pay for it. The event organizers paid for the trip.
It doesn’t matter. She shouldn’t have gone, the City shouldn’t have approved the time away, and there is absolutely nothing to be happy about with this story.
I don’t really care how many “good ideas” were brought home. Saudi Arabia doesn’t need Portland’s help with their fraudulent theatrics. This was a mistake.
I agree
Unless she was on leave and not drawing pay while there then we were paying for it. Also, we paid for the time for her staffers to put the presentation together.
Also, this org has conferences in LA and Miami this year (neither of which is exactly a standout in enlightened approaches to transportation hahaha). She could have attended one of those and gotten more or less the same learnings…no valid need to go to Riyadh.
LA is consistently building new transit, which is more than we can say.
Just think of all the really important things she would have accomplished if she had stayed in Portland for a few more days.
She can’t keep the bikes lanes swept, yet she has time to travel to Saudi and burnish the reputation of brutal dictatorship. WTF!?
Mayor Wilson, you are also to blame for this fiasco. You should have said no.
She just keeps getting worse. This is disgusting and a slap in the face to Fallon Smart’s family, how anyone could think this is appropriate is beyond me.
“Director Bonesaw” from now on.
This greenwa$hing of $audi Arabia has to stop and here was an obvious place to say NO. Beyond the other issues, anyone from PBOT going to SA without a pair of handcuffs and an Interpol warrant for Noorah is just spitting in the face of the Smart family.
I’d suggest JM talk to them but it might not be worth the pain.
I flagged her post on LinkedIn “announcing” her participation on Tuesday for a friend, a post which has now apparently been deleted.
Jonathan- did you reach out to PBOT for that quote?
Oh. Interesting to see the LinkedIn post has been deleted.
And yes of course I reached out to PBOT for that quote… just like it says.
The article attributes the quote to the PBOT comms person, not that you reached out to them for it. Was trying to clarify if that had been stated publicly, or only in response to your inquiry.
A bit of a moot point now that the conference has happened, but just another piece of evidence of a culture that HAS to change.
Ahh yes. Sorry. I hear you now. I reached out them. There was no public statement about this trip other than the Linkedin post from Williams that has now been deleted.
This is what happens when your professional inner circle is afraid to tell you the truth.
But Portland’s fairweather human rights champions have decided that Israel is THE bad guy over there, therefore everyone trying to destroy Israel gets a pass, if not universal adoration.
Pay no attention to the bone saw…
Who’s giving SA a free pass?
Millicent Williams, The City Director, the City Mayor and the entirety of the City Council to name a few.
Are those the same people Samoy is talking about?
I would be genuinely curious to hear her reasoning for this. Has she provided any kind of release or answered reporters or any other response at this time? Truly amazed how someone could justify supporting so much great work in PBOT around equity, for example, and then going to Riyadh of all places. Thanks for reporting on this.
What exactly is the “great work in PBOT around equity”? Can you please describe it for us? I’m not seeing where cyclists are getting much equity in PBOT’s work – they are still 97% car-centric.
Only in Portland can we say our Transportation Director has both a felony conviction and frequent-flyer miles from Saudi Arabia. At this point PBOT needs its own reality show.
It’s a bad look she went, and Fallons family deserves justice/extradition.
However, FYI the preachiness about other countries from America gets ZERO traction outside of the USA. Don’t waste your breath.
In general, Americans are poorly travelled, understand the rest of the world poorly, are captured by a preachy, colonialist media environment which gets clicks by portraying non Western countries as oppressive, dirty, or venal.
A story Americans seem to love to hear.
Islam offers some valid critiques of American life: the crass materialism, disregard for the poor, utter lonliness, strange over sexualization of women and the cultural tolerance for extreme lifestyles including extreme promiscuity, particularly in the gay community.
(As a gay man I actually have a more rewarding personal life in India than I ever did on the west coast.)
But the bottom line is other countries are entitled to run their affairs as they see fit. And certainly with the extreme ignorance of most Americans on the reality of life abroad, they (we) are in no place to judge.
Ah yes, how dare we critique a regime that saws apart critics. BOY are you gonna love the US in the next decade…
Aside from all of that – the regime’s protection of Fallon’s killer should have made every staffer in PBOT try to wave her off this. Either they are now all too young to remember… or Williams went anyways.
I mean, in general you’re right about Americans. On the other hand, I think we absolutely can judge a country that murders journalists, squashes dissent and persecutes ethnic minorities and gay people…whether that’s our country or another. Fallon Smart alone is sufficient reason for a Portland city official not to travel to Saudi in their official capacity.
BikePortland commenters, circa 2008: “here are some cool things to do on bikes!”
BikePortland commenters, now: “and their track record of fighting Western homosexual degeneracy and the excesses of women’s rights is why criticism of Saudi Arabia is off-base”
Correction: BP commenters today do cool things on bikes AND have a wider awareness of the context of transportation policies and practices. We can do both things at the same time.
This isn’t about other countries in the plural form. This is about the Kingdom. This is about a country that would literally execute you for being a gay man should you be foolish enough to go there. It’s ironic that they hate homosexuals so much since many of the men have sex with each other rather than their wives due to extreme misogyny, they just don’t consider themselves and aren’t considered queer.
Sharia law is dominant is Saudi life and the extreme form of Islam that is Wahhabism is what drove those Saudis to kill themselves and thousands of others on 9/11.
We are in a place to judge the horrors of the misogynistic monarchy that is the Kingdom. Because America has its issues does not mean we ignore places that idolize one sex and one extreme religion above all others to the point of codifying it into law, just shrug our shoulders and not say anything.
But India is majority Hindu.
Being openly homosexual in many Muslim majority countries can be extremely dangerous, with laws that criminalize same-sex relationships and widespread social persecution. Traveling there as an openly gay person requires extreme caution and awareness of the risks.
“Islam offers some valid critiques of American life”
If those critiques are perceived by Islam to be the worst of us (and we are far from perfect, not trying to say we are, not by a long shot), I’ll critique the worst of them (as an atheist, I have zero interest in anyone’s critiques that are based on or informed by their religious beliefs). When honor killings, forced conversion to Islam, subjugation of women and girls, restrictions on press, restrictions on speech, blasphemy laws, total intolerance for LGBTQ people, etc., are no longer in practice and showing up in horrifying articles about life in Muslim majority countries, holler back.
WTF does extreme lifestyles even mean, Don?
You may be mistaking us for the US federal government. In general you seem to conflate individuals, societies, and states. States are not entitled to violate human rights, that’s the principle behind international human rights treaties. And human beings are entitled to denounce the mistreatment of other humans by any state anywhere.
Though I could see how your position would make it easier to live in India while the Indian state practices extreme human rights violations, including torture and extrajudicial executions, in Kashmir and discrimination against non-Hindus in many states. You could say you have no right to judge because you’re an American. It wouldn’t just be inconvenient, it would be wrong really, to speak out. Colonialist even.
Too funny. Raymond Lee will put a stop to this sort of thing!
I hope you are right. Clearly someone should have advised her that it was a bad idea to make Portland the face of transportation in Saudi.
For an organization so concerned with optics having the head of Portland’s transportation bureau willingly participate in a conference to the country that smuggled out the accused killer of Fallon Smart sure looks pretty tone deaf. Perhaps now is a good opportunity for the new city administrator to initiate an audit of all the junkets city staff has taken to far away places to determine what tangible benefits, if any have been achieved for Portland residents.
Will he? What makes you think so?
Williams’ trip to Saudi Arabia wasn’t illegal, but it was a reckless and tone-deaf decision that shows a serious lack of judgment. Any city leader should have understood how offensive and insensitive this would be to Portlanders, especially given the Fallon Smart case and Saudi involvement in helping the suspect flee.
Her prior felony conviction already raised legitimate concerns about her ability to handle responsibility, and this trip only reinforces those concerns.
This is exactly why leadership roles must be filled based on merit, competence, and demonstrated judgment — not political symbolism, box-checking, or feel-good optics. When you prioritize anything other than real qualifications, you end up with leaders who make avoidable mistakes and damage public trust.
In addition to all the other ways that they are hellish to their near-enslaved working classes, Saudi Arabia and all the Gulf petro states are like, memeishly car-hell. It’s like if you got the Willamette Week comment section to design a transportation system.
I find it incredibly hilarious that in the picture of MAX on the conference’s website, half of it is a parking lot. Very appropriate snapshot of our parking-oriented transit system.
Disgusting waste of money and time to do this
I haven’t seen the details of the conference in Riyadh. I would be surprised and delighted to find conference gave appropriate weight to the need to severely curb or outright stop burning oil for transportation purposes.
There are so many questionable negative for PBOT/Portland to travel to Saudi Arabia, what one earth would be the upside? Was she paid? Does this just satisify her ego? Or is PBOT this hungry and desperate for attention and press? Is Williams just shopping her credentials around, looking to get her name out their and find a better job? It is a long way to go, I am really struggling to understand what the motivation might be?
Maybe she’s looking at a career move, in a jurisdiction/city/state/country/company that actually has serious transportation funding? Many people attend conferences and give presentations specifically for that purpose. She’s been in Portland for a couple years now, so maybe she sees the city as a step in her career trajectory (she was previously in DC then Chicago) and is exploring other possibilities that pay better or in more pleasant less-stressful work environments? Maybe a job with Halliburton or Bechtel, companies with even worse reputations among BP readers than Saudi Arabia?
I sent this to Williams, the mayor and city council, w/ this story’s URL footnoted.
####################
Dear Director Williams,
I am writing to express my concern and dismay that you have attended a transportation conference in Saudi Arabia. I understand your attendance was paid for by the Saudi government, not Portland taxpayers.
Portland continues to face an array of transportation problems, and pedestrians and cyclists continue to get injured and die on our streets. While it’s appropriate for you to present at a transportation conference, in this instance your attendance is a slap in the face of a city that proclaims (and sometimes lives) its values of fairness, equity, and inclusion. If we believe in these values, we must live them.
As a practical cyclist, I’m grateful for Portland’s (relatively) great cycling infrastructure, which allows me to get most places easily on a bike, keeping me fit and saving the substantial expense and headache of car ownership. But I often ride on high alert, as drivers routinely endanger my safety through a host of behaviors (speeding, texting, running red lights) that go almost entirely unpunished.
I implore you and PBOT to focus your energies here, placing Vision Zero above any perceived benefit you and PBOT might receive by your attendance at a conference sponsored by a greenwashing dictatorship.
Sincerely,
Ben Seigel
Queue the Costanza excuse.
“I was in the pool”?
Interesting how folks who have been convicted of crimes in their past often don’t have the morals to do the right thing in the present.