A most untimely publication (Jack Bog's Blog)

It's always a little scary when government bureaucracies set out to revise history. Events and people of the past have a way of disappearing when that happens. And so we read with amusement the news that the Portland water bureau had hired a guy to update former Frank Ivancie's 1983 history of the city's water system. They even had a fancy book signing the other day.

We haven't had a glimpse of the new version of events yet, but even without looking, we'd bet there are quite a few significant events that are omitted from, or downplayed in, the new edition. There have been so many embarrassments -- the reservoir cover eBay fiasco, the lost lawsuit over shenanigans with revenue bonds, the city's complicity with the federal rulemaking that wound up jacking water rates out of sight, solar-powered outdoor toilets for street drunks, the massive increases in spending on consultants, the hush-hush deal to let Carollo Engineers build a commercial testing facility on top of the Columbia wellfield, the birth control drugs in the well water, the nasty battles with ratepayers and neighbors over covering the reservoirs, the obscene increases in rates... Maybe some of that stuff is in there, but probably not much, and you can bet it will be spun exactly the way Admiral Randy wants it, or it wouldn't see the light of day.

"The billing system failure has been called a debacle, a fiasco, an example of government inefficiency," the book explains. "But such events were not limited to the Water Bureau, nor to the public sector. Local privately-owned utilities also had unsuccessful billing system implementations around the same time, which also cost millions but received very little public scrutiny."

Wow. Not all the E. coli is in the water, folks.

Whatever the accuracy of the latest revisions may be, the new book is obsolete already, because one of the most important events in water bureau history is only now about to happen. Today's the day that outraged water customers sue the city for wasting water revenues, running many millions of dollars, on non-water-related projects such as the Rose Festival headquarters, the "green" demonstration house, the building of parks, and many others -- including vanity publications. The breathtaking mission creep, fueled by boundless arrogance, is about to come to an end. Remedying this problem is long overdue, and it will probably merit a book of its own by the time it's done.

Comments (6)

FWIW, it's been my observation that, while the water portion of the bill is bad enough, it's really the sewer portion of the bill that majorly gouges. It's another aspect of the game they play.

Posted by boycat | December 6, 2011 8:33 AM

"But such events were not limited to the Water Bureau, nor to the public sector. Local privately-owned utilities also had unsuccessful billing system implementations around the same time, which also cost millions but received very little public scrutiny."

I love Randy's logic - Sure serial killers murder people, but people die other ways also so let's not blame murderers too often.

(BTW - Randy that is what we call an analogy, I am not comparing you to a criminal.)

I can only hope he sleeps well with his two public pensions I am helping pay for.

Posted by Steve | December 6, 2011 8:37 AM

The number of people who actually read this book could be counted on two hands. Maybe one.

That's fortunate for avoiding propaganda. Unfortunate that we had to pay to write this thing.

Posted by Snards | December 6, 2011 9:32 AM

I wish the Portland Water Bureau would actually name the private utilites that billing system problems at the time the Portland Bureau was screwing up - because I don't remember any issues with PGE or NW Natural bills anytime in the past..Or are they just making this stuff up to deflect from Eric Sten's total incompetence?

Posted by Dave A. | December 6, 2011 12:02 PM

Even my 7 year old knows that "everybody does it" is no excuse.

Posted by Mister Tee | December 6, 2011 1:22 PM

This "book" may be in response to all the negativity towards the water bureau.
In my opinion, Randy will go down in Portland's history as the worst water commissioner ever for his betrayal of our bull run water system and the huge debt he has run up to where we could lose our water to privatization.

If that should happen, no amount of propaganda or books will cover that up.
More waste of our money to try to do so!

On the PWB site -
Posted by: David Shaff - December 02, 2011 04:46 PM:
Logan
We haven't figured out the best way to go about this yet - and you are the second person to make a request. Congratulations!

Let's keep it simple for now and complicate it later. Send me a note and check for $6.50 made out to the Portland Water Bureau and we will drop one in the mail to you. Put "Precious Heritage" on the subject line of the check if you would.

"Precious Heritage" - Sure would have been nice if the Portland Water Bureau would have done everything possible to save that precious heritage instead of acting to dismantle it!

As mentioned in above thread - ...the city's complicity with the federal rulemaking that wound up jacking water rates out of sight, ...

How about another book on that complicity?

Posted by clinamen | December 6, 2011 6:56 PM

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Tuesday, December 6, 2011

A most untimely publication

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