One way to raise money (Jack Bog's Blog)

We blogged a while back about the "hit squad" of city inspectors that Portland Commissioner Randy Leonard unabashedly sics on downtown businesses that he deems to be sources of trouble. We wondered aloud whether it was healthy for one person to have such unfettered discretion -- to throw the book at businesses that he alone selected, when it is common knowledge that nearly every commercial operation has quite a few code violations that the city could write up if it wanted to be picky about it. If not dictatorial, the practice under Leonard seemed ripe for abuse -- and it still does.

Now we learn from some of our entrepreneurial friends that a quieter phenomenon with the same odor of Chicago City Hall has begun to appear around Portland. According to these sources, the city's Fire Bureau, presently starved for money under major budget cuts, is purposely boosting its own revenue by undertaking white-glove inspections on a scale not usually seen in these parts. One writes:

[T]he only revenue the PFB is currently getting is from those $400 "inspections." We felt that we were being singled out for all sorts of petty stuff that is just now being "discovered" after many years in our present location. We have spent [more than a thousand dollars] on fees in the last few months for inspections and then re-inspections to see if we did what the fire marshal told us to do. It was all stuff that had been previously passed in prior inspections....

Based on unofficial conversations with friends in the Fire Bureau, the reader concludes:

We were not special at all. This is the new way to get money for operating expenses to avoid having to lay off or cut down on firefighter personnel.
These pricey inspections come right off our bottom line, and one doesn't want to bitch for fear of having to endure more time and expense. I feel as though we are the victims of a form of extortion, but there is not one thing we can do about it.... This is another tax on small businesses that really hurts everyone at this time.

I thank you for your interest in this issue and I appreciate your willingness to keep our name out of it.

Now, I'll bet there has rarely been a business that is happy when the inspectors show up, but this friend is not ordinarily a whiner. It seems that he or she has made a legitimate observation.

Are Fireman Randy's fire inspectors really increasing their inspection levels during the recession? And if so, why?

Comments (11)

I get laughed at for criticizing government, but things like this make the case for me.

Posted by The Libertarian Guy | March 11, 2009 4:51 AM

I'm just mad PFB shut down The Cave by PSU for too low a ceiling. They actually had pretty good jazz acts at a reasonable ($5/person donation), unlike Jimmy Mak's $20 for retread acts.

Get used to it though. BDS is going to take forever to permit stuff since they have about 1/3 the work they did and the same number of people. In addition, they are looking for every revenue (tax/fee) generating opp they can.

Posted by Steve | March 11, 2009 6:15 AM

The practice gets a pass from Portland voters because "it only targets the business owner/rich guy" or "it doesn't have anything to do with me" or "they've got to get money from somewhere and they won't get it from me"

Posted by Daivd E Gilmore | March 11, 2009 6:23 AM

Sounds like a new episode of Handy Randy and his Tools.

Posted by JennGorasm | March 11, 2009 7:33 AM

We should dub this Randy's Operation Darwin because only the strong will survive.

Posted by Garage Wine | March 11, 2009 7:38 AM

"it doesn't have anything to do with me"

The problem with that logic is that a business is going to pass those costs to the customer.

Do they think that a business owner is just going to eat those costs? It doesnt work that way.

Posted by Jon | March 11, 2009 8:07 AM

You can pass on only so much...before you start to loose your customer base, or the business owner has to start laying off employees.
Everyone looses eventually.
If the CoP did not have so much debt and IF the URA and TIF money had not been hijacked from the tax rolls for soccer and SoWhat there would be more money for schools and services that property taxes are supposed to pay for.

Posted by portland native | March 11, 2009 8:51 AM

No you can't always pass on the cost. Sometimes it's better to just go somewhere else. Gert Boyle and Columbia Sportswear desperately wanted to stay in Portland. Now their warehouse in St Johns is hollow and they took their $1.3 Billion in net sales to Cedar Mill. Freightliner will take their measly 900 living wage jobs and go to NC by next year. There are more, too. We just don't see them except in empty stores and vacant houses. But hey, we got the coolest bike lanes in America.

Posted by Concordbridge | March 11, 2009 12:22 PM

Remember that aluminum plant in Troutdale that was built to use the electricity from BPA? Alcoa bought the Reynolds plant and closed it and built a new on in ICELAND. http://www.alcoa.com/iceland/en/home.asp

So what do we do with the giant vacant site? Pitch it to sell beer and peanuts:
http://www.kgw.com/business/stories/kgw_030105_sports_nascar_oregon.f65a435d.html

Posted by Concordbridge | March 11, 2009 12:37 PM

"Are Fireman Randy's fire inspectors really increasing their inspection levels during the recession? And if so, why?"

Because business is an easy target in this state. If you listen to most libs, business owners and the Devil must be roommates.

Most business owners will "eat" the costs to a point. Every business has a threshold for additional costs and when that threshold is broken, something must happen.

#1: Prices rise
#2: Employees are fired
#3: Business relocates out of the offending jurisdiction.

None of these are good for the state.

Posted by mp97303 | March 11, 2009 2:39 PM

As an item of information, the Portland Fire Bureau revved up the fire inspections the last time the City was in a recession back in 2001-2003. At the time, I had an office over in the Goose Hollow area. After occupying the space for at least three years, I was "suddenly" visited by a Fire Inspector, despite the fact that I had never had one visit in the three prior years. Of course, they "found" a few things for me to "fix" - even though it amounted to nothing more than re-arranging my electrical cord connections.
These so-called "inspections" are almost always geared to "find" something for the property owner or leassee to "fix" at some cost to themselves. Not to mention, these a-holes will also charge you a fee for their visit as well.
If you own a business in Portland - even if you've never had a fire inspection - don't be surprised if one of these people comes for a visit soon. And I predict this will continue to happen as long as Portland is desperate for money.

Posted by Dave A. | March 11, 2009 5:32 PM

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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

One way to raise money

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