Bucks deluxe at Portland City Council (Jack Bog's Blog)

Budget stuff is pretty boring, but the latest summaries of this year's money requests at the Portland City Council contain some interesting reading. Here are what the city commissioners' offices are asking for, compared to last year:

Mayor Sam Adams: +19%
Commissioner Randy Leonard: +2.2%
Commissioner Dan Saltzman: -41.9%
Commissioner Nick Fish: +8.3%
Commissioner Amanda Fritz: +2.3%

The mayor's big increase stems mainly from three big-ticket items: $106,000 "to fund security services for the mayor" (a new bodyguard, perhaps?); $100,000 for a director for the mayor's various education initiatives; and $741,750 for new education programs. The latter consist of "SUN Service System Expansion/Enhancement to develop a core set of services for academic-priority SUN high school students" ($100,000); "Summer Youth Connect to continue funding of interventions to increase graduation and post-secondary access through career planning and work experience" ($325,000); "Education Strategy Support to provide general support for the Education Cabinet and Annual Education Summit" ($115,000); "Youth Engagement to continue the Multnomah Youth Commission and expand youth program aides beyond the Youth Planner Program" ($33,750); and "Future Connect Scholarship program to provide scholarship grants for the first two years of study at Portland or Mt. Hood Community Colleges" ($168,000). Our mayor sure has a fondness for those teenagers.

The big cut in Saltzman's budget is pretty mysterious. It does not appear that the inner workings of his office are changing in any way. There was a one-time $1.32 million capital expense of some kind booked to Saltzman last year, and it won't be repeated this year. It probably had to do with the "children's investment fund," whereby city tax dollars are spent on education-related programs without running the money through the school district budget (and its property tax limitations). "Legend" Saltzman is very much for the children, and he cuts an appropriately somber figure at young people's funerals.

Meanwhile, Fish is getting a new administrative assistant in his office as he coasts to re-election:

This add package requests a new Commissioner's Administrative Support Specialist position. The package is funded through salary savings gained from reducing one current position from full-time to part-time combined with interagency funding from the Portland Housing Bureau.

Comments (8)

Adams needs to hire at least five new advisors. Some 25-year-old who have never held a real job would probably do the trick.

Oh, and someone to manage the advisors, cuz he sure as hell isn't going to do it.

Posted by Snards | February 16, 2010 12:13 PM

C'mon Jack,
"Our mayor sure has a fondness for those teenagers."
Even I won't stoop to attacking Sam Adams as a pedo while going after his budget.

Posted by dean | February 16, 2010 12:34 PM

I'm not "going after" anything. The mayor is a creep who should not be allowed around community college students, much less high schoolers.

Posted by Jack Bog | February 16, 2010 12:38 PM

Maybe the $106K is for security services is to protect Adams constituents from him.

Posted by Gil Johnson | February 16, 2010 12:48 PM

"Youth Planner Program" ??? Either the juveniles are allowed to run BDS (it certainly seems that way) or it's an elite group that arranges Creepy's dating schedule.

Posted by Morbius | February 16, 2010 12:51 PM

When did Sam get elected to the Portland School Board and the Community College Board? If I served on one of those elected Boards I would feel that Sam was interfering with the either board's role. Has anyone made an earnest legal inquiry into Portland's charter provisions allowing Sam to meddle in Education? This role creep must be abated.

Posted by lw | February 16, 2010 3:19 PM

I'm surprised Sam's number is that low. He keeps staffing up and each employee is $100K min. I really can't imagine his ego not letting him hire more flack-meisters.

I am not getting the education director, he already has an Education Strategies Policy Adviser AND an Education Strategies Youth Coordinator AND a Portland Multnomah Youth Corps Coordinator. I mean, dear God, he has a Director and multiple advisors for all these little pet projects.

Posted by Steve | February 16, 2010 6:09 PM

"When did Sam get elected to the Portland School Board"

Right now the School Board is seriously considering closing Grant High School and making parents drive 1500 kids around town to other struggling schools. Obviously this will lead to hundreds of kids leaving PPS, speeding the decline of a once decent urban district, and probably one day leading to the mayor having to take over the schools as has happened in many large cities. Not a popular sentiment here, but maybe if he gets more involved now we can avoid that.

Posted by Sherwood | February 17, 2010 8:01 AM

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Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Bucks deluxe at Portland City Council

Comments (8)

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