That picture of Ruiz looks like one of those screen shots just before the defendant is convicted of some horrible crime!
And the O actually used the word "lies" in describing Adams!
Too bad they didn't do that 4+ years ago!

These last minute job transfer shenanigans usually have everything to do with helping a loyal lieutenant with their pension calculation, and nothing to do with actual job related stuff.

I really like this bit of logic:

"Miller wants to hire a public affairs manager who can develop "effective relationships with the press" and serve as "bureau director and assume full responsibility in bureau director's absence."

Earlier this year, Miller ousted the person who had a similar job in the bureau, Maureen Yandle. He said then that he let Yandle go to save the bureau money. But he kept Yandle's salary in the 2012-13 budget and is now using that money for the new public affairs position."

Assume full responsibilty in the director's absense? WTF?

Is that so you can continue job hunting, or is this some sort of cruel joke where you continue to promote Amy to a position of which she is extremely unqualified to see if anybody really gives an fluck?

"it's hard to figure out what Mayor Creepy is up to."

Grassy knoll theory 1034 - Either Adams. Miller or Ruiz have some crap on stuff that is going on in CoP that they aren't responsible for that'll force Hales hand and make him keep them employed.

I don't understand how this trio can maintain their jobs with such a low $/talent price.

"such a low $/talent price"

Meant low talent/$ price.

Portland City Hall is a snake oil salesman's dream job. You've got leverage over all businesses; you've got 60% of the electorate as young inexperienced pipe dreamers, 20% or so dependent on your government assistance hand outs, the well heeled who like riding around on your federally and state subsidized street cars, and an army of government workers getting fatter by the year; and if you spend too much on unsuccessful pipe dream projects or just plain public money transfers to favorite folks and entities, you have the rubber stamp of others at City Hall to jack up taxes on the 40% of the non-hip folks who include readers of this blog.
And when the favored groups like City Hall sponsored arts charities (and their six figured salary bureaucrats) are able to hoodwink the 60% into a new Arts tax (a campaign financed by the City's own public monies, indirectly through City created charities), they throw a party not too different from one bank robbers might throw after an Oceans 11 like heist.
Yes it sure is fun being one of the 40% chumps living in stump town.

Maureen Yandle was a responsible civil servant with many years of experience. Small wonder she go the boot.

Oh yeah the AG investigated the Adams Ruiz shenanigans and found nothing wrong...the same AG's office that found nothing wrong with a politically motivated sub-contract that was awarded to the current governor's girlfriend by the Department of Energy crowd despite the FACT the main contractor who won the bid did NOT want/need a subcontractor. Am I missing something? As much as I love this blog and the comments of virtually everyone, it remains unbvelievable to me that Charlie Hales gets to take office with NO court challenge regarding his out-state-residency/where he voted/where he paid taxes.

It may have something to do with CoP's crazy rules on firing. If I recall correctly, if you're a "political" appointee like a bureau head, you can be replace. But, if you're "staff," then the hurdles get much higher to fire someone.

My guess is that this latest shift is a way to help Amy stay employed and keep her mouth shut long enough for Sam to find some idiot nonprofit to hire him.

Garage Wine, I suspect that, unless she has some really good dirt on him that could lead to multiple years of jail time, Sam is just running down the clock. Once he's out of office, nobody's going to care what she had on him unless it involves felonies that interest the FBI or the Secret Service. Well, we'll care, but unless it includes video footage of his mocking BikePortland as "suckers and fools," I don't expect anyone else in Portland would care. (Even then, I don't expect anything to change. Like any other lying evangelist caught in hypocrisy, Sam will always have plenty of apologists arguing that he was just misunderstood.)

Couldn't it also just be an attempt to strengthen the junta's well-staffed strangle-hold on the political machinery in anticipation of the new mayor's threat to shake things up?

Kinda doubtful, Mr. Grumpy. I suspect that when it comes to Ruiz, Dave J. is correct: this is all about severance and pension when Charlie gets rid of one block of vermin and replaces it with his own handpicked vermin. Or, to put it another way, if Ruiz's new position normally pays $100k, and she gets six months' severance when she's told she has ten minutes to pack before Security switches to live ammo, she's still getting three years' worth of her Mercury pay.

You're probably right, Triffid Rancher. I sometimes probably aim too high with my wild suspicions.

Keep aiming high. At the very least, the shooting keeps their heads down.

Miller like Ruiz are just Sammyboy cronies. Any decision to hire a new communications person needs to be held off until after the Hales administration takes over and has a chance to review, revise and likely change the transportation bureau budget – and hopefully say goodbye to Miller.

http://www.cartoonpictures.pro/i/boris-badenov-and-natasha-fatale-photo-778.jpg

Yeah, I probably shouldn't have read so much Machiavelli at an impressionable age. It's difficult to not start believing cleverer-than-likely devils are hiding under every political rock.

Hush money!

Mojo, it's probably closer to this: http://www.enjoy-your-style.com/images/sid-and-nancy.jpg

Oh, and Mr. Grumpy? I don't blame you at all, but I grew up exposed firsthand to Riddell's Law: "Any sufficiently developed incompetence is indistinguishable from conspiracy." What makes me angry isn't that they're as stupid as they are greedy. It's that they think the rest of us are even dumber than they are.

Mojo, let's be fair. It's probably even closer to this, with Jack over at the left with the glasses: http://leighkellogg.deviantart.com/gallery/?rnrd=26138#/d38tt2i

paul:As much as I love this blog and the comments of virtually everyone, it remains unbvelievable to me that Charlie Hales gets to take office with NO court challenge regarding his out-state-residency/where he voted/where he paid taxes.

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/index.ssf/2012/11/former_clackamas_county_electi.html

"The integrity of Oregon elections is of paramount importance," Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said in a press release, "The Department of Justice has made this investigation a high priority since the allegations came to light."

"We have zero tolerance for voter fraud in Oregon," Brown said in a press release this morning. "Security procedures are in place to detect this kind of conduct. The system worked, and no person's ballot was impacted. Oregonians can be confident in their election results."

The last I heard this Hales Complaint was on hold on Kate Brown's desk.
What do you think she will do?

Pretty funny, T.T.R. Thanks! And Clinamen, given the pathetic disposition of those PPS election violations, Kate the Skate will do this to Hales: http://www.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4b040606000000000048703f