Copyright The Oregonian
A top Portland City Hall staffer is out of a job amid revelations he took in a disabled homeless woman living outside and later abandoned her at a state park. Councilor Jamie Dunphy fired Amani Kelekele, 35, on Tuesday, just one day after he placed his senior aide on paid administrative leave, city spokesperson Alison Perkins said. Both actions came after The Oregonian/OregonLive published an investigation last week detailing Kelekele’s interactions with the woman, who uses a wheelchair and has a documented history of mental illness. [Read the full investigation here.] Dunphy had hired Kelekele as his chief of staff when he took office in January, a position that paid an annual salary of $131,000. Kelekele first informed his boss of the situation with the homeless woman in late September. Dunphy, who represents east Portland, declined to comment Thursday. In an email to his City Hall colleagues Wednesday announcing the departure, he expressed his appreciation for Kelekele and “his service to our office and to the people of Portland.” “Amani brought real passion to his work and a deep commitment to helping others,” Dunphy wrote. “That said, choices were made that do no align with how we strive to serve our community and uphold the trust placed in us by our constituents.” On Sept. 25, Kelekele drove the woman and her dog out to Milo McIver State Park in the middle of the night and dropped them off at a campsite with blankets, a beach umbrella and assorted grocery bags, according to records reviewed by The Oregonian/OregonLive. Days prior, Kelekele had scooped the woman off a Milwaukie street in an attempt to help her avoid arrest, he wrote in a Sept. 30 memo to Dunphy obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive. He said he had let the woman stay at his home while he tried, unsuccessfully, to find her assistance she would accept. Less than 36 hours after Kelekele left the woman at the campground, about 21 miles southeast of Portland, park workers asked state police to remove her. The woman, who had told park staff she had a history of “violent interactions with police,” would not cooperate, records allege. State troopers used a taser to subdue, handcuff and arrest her on Sept. 27. The woman’s dog, a scrawny pit bull she described as an emotional support animal, bit a trooper before it bolted into the woods and disappeared. Despite Kelekele’s written account, police and social service outreach workers in Milwaukie said the woman was not about to be arrested at the time Kelekele decided to assist her. In fact, advocates trained to work directly with people experiencing homelessness and mental health crises had spent days attempting to get her help, according to interviews with The Oregonian/OregonLive. Kelekele did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. He previously declined to speak to the Oregonian/OregonLive during its reporting on the incident. “This has caused a great deal of emotional distress,” Kelekele wrote in a statement last month. “I would like to clarify that I led with my heart in my sincere attempts to aid (the woman). “However, if I could do it over, I would do it differently.” Dunphy, in an interview last month, called the events “awful and heartbreaking.” “This is obviously the worst-case scenario of how things could have turned out,” said Dunphy, who noted that Kelekele had also once been homeless and overcame other difficult circumstances. Speaking with the Oregonian/OregonLive on three separate occasions in October, Dunphy defended his staffer’s decisions. “It was done with the best of intentions and with some errors in judgment that, I think, come from a person who has an incredible lived experience that makes them want to try and be everything to everyone and be as helpful and as thorough in that help as possible,” he said. Attempts by The Oregonian/OregonLive to locate or speak to the woman were unsuccessful.
