If any public manager is letting any "smart" phone leave the country with the government on the hook for voice and data roaming charges, that person needs his or her choke chain jerked. That's a recipe for a significant waste of money.

Geez. Even the SKANNER scoops the Oregonian. Any bets that the "O" will copy and paste it (without attribution) tomorrow?

What exactly does a county employee have to do to get fired, anyway?

Dear Oregonian editors and writers (I know some of you read this site):

If you want to reduce the chances of your paper becoming completely extinct, you need to do some actual reporting with analysis like this article that comes from the Skanner. People are still interested in real journalism. They are not interested in what the Oregonian has become: a cut and paste publication for gov't spin doctors and infomercials disguised as articles.

The Oregonian is an embarrassment to this city.

Meh. Using a cell phone without thinking about the charges is pretty common.

I did it with my old work phone but after the first month I brought it to my boss's attention that I was doing it. I asked if we could cut a deal so I didn't have to get my own personal phone.

The deal was I could use the phone for personal use as long as I kept the phone with me wherever I went and paid something like 20% of the bill.

They loved me at that job. Running slums in North Portland with PDC/HAP/HUD money. :-)

-JO

I think it is time that government takes over the Oregonian.

Oh, they have? My mistake.

"Multnomah County already has begun to act on the recommendations. County Chair Jeff Cogen sent emails to employees detailing the cell phone policy"
I am sure that this will do the job!!
I wonder how many of the abusers were staff for the county commissioners?

At least one of my old employers would have instituted an investigation on the records of each employee and canned them in a New York minute for "theft of time."

But then the county is not a private, for profit business and, after all, it's only the public's money.

Good lord I would like to see public payed Samms records

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/11/multnomah_county_fritters_3000.html

Thanks for that Pete. I'm no fan of the Oregonian, but I knew I had read about this a couple weeks ago.

Please don't complain about the hi-tech "cut and paste" ability of the writers and editors of the Oregonian fish wrapper, how else would you ever know about this stuff that is so important to Portland residents.

http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2012/12/black_pete_debate_in_netherlan.html#incart_river

When I worked for the city, my bureau required us to pay for any personal charges. We got a copy of the phone detail and had to pay either monthly or quarterly. At least in my assignment it was recognized that you occasionally needed to call home or school when working overtime. Our work phones were not a substitute for personal cells. A large number of personal stuff would have put me in the dog house and the charges would have been obvious if you looked at the bill.

We did have problems with some unsolicited texts but it wasn't the fault of the users.

Our key employees who need to be in touch with the business when they are out of the office pay for their own cell phones. We pay half of an average bill for the use of their phone for company purposes as a flat fee "bonus" every month, but it must be turned on at agreed-upon hours. Any overages are the problem of the employee. (I do not know what accounting rules are used - it's not a bonus, just not sure what you call it.)

Thanks for the link. I missed that one. If you are an Oregonian employee, I still stand by my message above.

From folks I know who still work for Multnomah County, I think they've eliminated land lines in many of their offices. When I worked there many years ago and few people had cell phones, everyone used the work land line to call home, make doctor's appointments, etc. It was understood that one could do that during breaks and lunch time, and that the number of calls should not be excessive. My guess is that policies have not kept up with the actual practice.