Oregon Public Broadcasting

Portland City commissioner Randy Leonard Friday enacted an obscure rule that allows the city council to undo any vote within 10 days.

Leonard says he will reverse the council's approval of a new tax for road repairs.

City commissioner Sam Adams championed the tax. He claimed the Oregon Petroleum Association had promised not to fight it.

After the tax passed, the petroleum lobby filed the paperwork needed to refer the issue to the voters.

Leonard calls that a betrayal. He says at the next council meeting, the tax will be reversed and then voted on again, this time split into three parts.

Splitting the vote makes it harder - and more expensive - to fight.

Paul Romain, the gas industry lobbyist, says if that happens he will not collect the signatures to overturn the tax.

Leonard says he doesn't believe that.

Randy Leonard: “I don't care what he denies. He just cannot be trusted. And that he says he won't go to court is no different than him promising Sam Adams he wasn't going to refer this to voters. I just don't believe him. He will use every political trick in the book, including finding some technicality to get in front of a judge and get it thrown out. And I am just not biting.”

The issue is of particular importance to Sam Adams, who is running for mayor.

Political observers say that campaigning for mayor while backing a tax increase isn't an easy task.