Portland City Council and police chief meet in private to discuss April 1 neo-Nazi rally

A demonstrator holds up a sign outside of City Hall at rally against the Neo-Nazi group that demonstrated in Portland on April 10. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

The Portland City Council and interim police chief met behind closed doors Monday to talk about an April 1 neo-Nazi rally through downtown that prompted residents to call for a tougher response from the city.

The council voted 7-2 to hold an executive session on the police department’s after-action report on the rally with Councilors Victoria Pelletier and Regina Phillips opposed.

“I’m getting a significant amount of people asking me what’s next,” Pelletier said. “They’re waiting and it’s frustrating … Going into executive session feels like we’re going to have a significant conversation about something people want to know about in an environment where they can’t know about it.”

The council cited a provision in state law that allows for executive sessions for “discussions of information contained in records made, maintained or received by a body or agency when access by the general public to those records is prohibited by statute.”

City Manager Danielle West also told the council there is an active criminal investigation into the rally and some participants and the specifics of the investigation would need to remain confidential.

The executive session was held as part of a workshop on the April 1 rally by the Nationalist Social Club, which gathered about 25 of its members downtown. Roughly 100 people protested outside the police department in the aftermath of the rally, calling for a tougher response to a fight that broke out, and many delivered the same message to councilors at a meeting April 10.

Monday’s workshop included a presentation and Q&A on the First Amendment with the chief counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine.

Pelletier said she thought the council would be talking more specifically about the April 1 rally and the city’s response.

“I thought we were talking about … what do we do when this group comes back, what steps can we take to show the public that we’re hearing them and how do we as a council create a consistent framework for messaging on our website and social media pages regarding violence and hate speech,” Pelletier said.

Some other councilors and members of the public also called for more information to be shared publicly, including Councilor April Fournier, who asked if the city has a plan to keep people safe this weekend during Pride festivities.

West said she has spoken with Interim Police Chief Heath Gorham about the weekend and the police department has precautions in place. “Obviously we don’t want to reveal any sort of tactical decision-making or information but that would be something that the police are well prepared for,” she said.

Leo Hilton, who said in April that he was targeted by the Nationalist Social Club as he held a rainbow flag in front of the group during the rally, said during public comment that he was disappointed by the workshop and urged the council to discuss the rally publicly.

“I want to know what the action plan is and what the next steps are that the council is going to take,” Hilton said. “Maybe what I’m learning from this meeting is the city is not prepared and the council is not prepared to defend people like me.”