"And his colleagues and supervisors in city government weren't part of the conspiracy? Hmmmmm..."

Exactly. I think there's a better chance of Santa landing on my roof tonight than McCoy being the only bad actor with the city involved here. Now, as to whether or not anybody else pays the piper is an open question.

Lee Harvey McCoy?

Looks like the Feds have positioned him for a great squealer's plea deal. US DOJ in need of a Public Corruption win after a long spectacular string of losses going back to at least Enron. Others in the city ought to be sweating. Maybe that's why the Port needs to expand: to ship all those mooks up the river.

Mojo, your comment made me think of a SamRand perp walk. That would be awesome.

The City Council member in charge of PBOT (Sammyboy) ought to take the responsibility for this entire fiasco. Even though he likely was looking the other way – at who knows what it happened under his watch. The irresponsibility was his.

I want to apply for that job! I'll take the wrist slap along with the perks.

Rules are only as powerful as the consequences for breaking them.

Look at how this fits if you just change 2 lines:

FREE MAN IN PARIS
Joni Mitchell

"The way I see it," he said
"You just can't win it...
Everybody's in it for their own gain
You can't please 'em all
There's always somebody calling you down
I do my best
And I do good business
There's a lot of people asking for my time
They're trying to get ahead
They're trying to be a good friend of mine
I was a free man in Paris
I felt unfettered and alive
There was nobody calling me up for favors
And no one's future to decide
You know I'd go back there tomorrow
But for the work I've taken on
Stoking the parking meter machinery
until the Feds came along
I deal in dreamers
And telephone screamers
Lately I wonder what I do it for
If l had my way
I'd just walk out those doors
And wander
Down the Champs Elysees
Going cafe to cabaret
Thinking how I'll feel when I find
That very good friend of mine
I was a free man in Paris
I felt unfettered and alive
Nobody was calling me up for favors
No one's future to decide
You know I'd go back there tomorrow
But for the work I've taken on
Stoking the parking meter machinery
Until the Feds came along

Must be a generation thing Bill. I have no idea the song (poem?) you referencing. :-(

Oh man I should have said, "Bill...you are breaking up."

:-)

I was there the day Ellis McCoy walked into the Transportation Bureau. I, a peon, knew from just looking at him and how he arrived there, that something was wrong with the picture. His affect was off; something was disturbingly odd about him. Now I know more of the facts.

Joni Mitchell! One of my personal favorites!
MY generation and I love her. Thanks so much Bill!
Jo, look it up! That song is a classic!

Gee, Tucson wouldn't Tom Miller...go figure....

I wonder when McCoy cops a plea Aug 30th if Sammy Boy will be squirming a little. This Paragraph is interesting, at least to my way of thinking. "The more detailed allegations contained in the new court filing mirror the complaints from city staff and from competing contractors to McCoy's supervisors and then transportation-commissioner Sam Adams, which led to incomplete investigations and a backlash against staff who made the complaints".

I will take the day off from work to celebrate if/when Sam Adams takes his perp walk.

The City Council member in charge of PBOT (Sammyboy) ought to take the responsibility for this entire fiasco.

Ha, ha. Fat chance. That'll happen only when irrefutably implicated. Remember how he tried to weasel out of the Beau Breedlove story at first by calling everybody else a liar?

Jo,
OMG! J. M. is the bomb, bro. She's JKRSFOZ.
She's like Taylor Swift combined with Justin Bieber. You'll love her.

Pay a guy a few thousand to get a few million in contracts - I say that is a pretty good return on your investment.

What is the problem with that?

Digging way deep in the memory, I recall that the federal conspiracy charge under 18 USC 371, and exceptions to the hearsay rules so that one co conspirator, say a guy named NacAvoy, testify to hearsay statements by another co conspirator, say Peter Parking Guy, made in furtherance of the conspiracy.

The superceeding indictment adding the additional charges against McCoy should be viewed in that light, as enabling testimony by a guy allegedly caught red handed accepting a bribe and pleading guilty more readily admissible against a still to be indicted alleged bribe giver.

While its nice to think about other folks in PBOT and elsewhere in the City administration getting nailed, the detail in the story on the Boregonian seems to point to testimony against the alleged bribe giver(s), rather than other City staff.

I always am amused recalling one of the big federal bribery cases of the 1920s, when then Interior Secretary Albert Fall was convicted, in relation to the Teapot Dome naval oil reserve of taking a bribe which California oilman William Dohenny (yes, of Dohenny Boulevard in LA fame) was acquitted of giving.

Could it be that in our City of Roses we have a rosy situation for some known as the "Protection for Perks?"

Nice rewrite there, Bill!

One thing we won't see here:

They paved Paradise; put up a parking lot.