Why do you hate public employees?

I've never thought Jack hated public employees. His animus is directed at top-heavy organizational charts in public organizations. As a retired public employee, I agree with Jack. There are too many chiefs and, often, not enough indians.

Oh, if I had to guess, I'd say Jack thinks that occasionally there are too many of both. Even so, I wouldn't be so rash as to presume how Jack directs his animus - accusing him of using his pets to attack government waste is unwarranted.

BTW, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony

Department of Redundancy Department, Bureau of Drawers, how may I help you?

The fact that we have three different agencies called "Development" shows you what's wrong with this town nowadays. In its Tom McCall heyday, development was the enemy of Portland. Then Goldschmidt decided that development was fine, so long as he got paid. Now we have the "strong developer" form of city government.

you forgot the Portland Development Commission - though not technically a bureau.

oops. you do have it. hangs head in shame

No, they're in there as one of the unholy trinity.

To: DoRD, BoD,

I was looking for the Department of Making Really Important Pronouncements that Have Nothing To Do With Our Jobs but Pander To Interest Groups who just Might Provide Campaign Funds or Future Employment Opportunities office.

Can you help?

I was looking for the Department of Making Really Important Pronouncements that Have Nothing To Do With Our Jobs but Pander To Interest Groups who just Might Provide Campaign Funds or Future Employment Opportunities office.

I believe you are looking for the Oregonian.

RR:

Each Commissioner is in charge of their own standalone DMRIPTHNTDWOJBPTIGWJMPCFFEO office. Cntact the commissioner's campaign manager for the contact info.

DoRD, BOD

Each Commissioner is in charge of their own standalone DMRIPTHNTDWOJBPTIGWJMPCFFEO office.

But, but, isn't there an Overseeing Overarching, Overreaching, Sustainable, Organic, Recyclably Diverse Committee for the Betterment of Partnering with the Various DMRIPTHNTDWOJBPTIGWJMPCFFEO offices?

Is there no OUTREACH, dammit?!?!

Oh, and will I need a permit to see them?

One of the reasons there are so many bureaus is that there are 4 mini mayors in addition to the actual mayor.

Every mini mayor has to have a portfolio of several bureaus to "manage", so they can act and feel ( as contrasted to being) important.

So the mini mayors have an instiutional bias toward and a vested intrested in the proliforation of bureaus.

Yet another reason to vote in the charter changes.

Yet another reason to vote in the charter changes.
JK:Yeah, but not those ones. What we need is fewer bureaus so that we can elect bureau heads directly and vote on their budgets.

Any bureau with "development" in their title should be summarily shut down.

I suspect that we only really need a few bureaus:

police
fire
roads
water & sewer

What else is really needed?

Thanks
JK

What else is really needed?

Thanks
JK

Parks - even if Zari was voted off the island...

Sustainable Development
Development Commission
Development Services
Planning Bureau
Environmental Services

Part of the problem is the city gets cute with its naming conventions. What was once the inelegant Bureau of Buildings became Office of Planning and Development Review, then morphed into Bureau of Development Services. In the meantime Neighborhood Inspections was both in --and then back out of-- the Office of Neighborhood Involvement, which itself used to be Office of Neighborhood Associations but then branched out. Whew. Got it?

Environmental Services is more elegant than Sewers and Sustainable Development is certainly cathier than Garbage Collection Services, ow whatver they morphed out of. (I don't even remember.)

I used to Manage the Assessments & Liens Division in the Auditor's Office, but now I'm supervising the Liens Section of the Operations Division of the Revenue Bureau. What remains behind in the Auditor's Office is the Assessments, Finance, and Foreclosure Division, or section, or cell, or whatever they are now.

All in all I don't think there's really been a proliferation of bureaus, and, in fact, consolidation is more the rule. What has increased is the number of words in names, and their complexity. Why call a bureau Computer Services when you can call it Bureau of Information Technology. All this stuff is s'possed to better reflect what we do, but sometimes our names get so convoluted it's hard to figure out what some bureaus do.

At least the Mayor's Office is still the Mayor's Office.

And there's a lot of unused letterhead that gets recycled.

Can we rename the Mayor's office.
The Bureau of Wealth Redistribution?

Frank, I sure do miss the old days when I could just go down to the "Buiding Department" or tell a client to do such, and all your business could transpire in one building. Then the common name became Bureau of Buildings-see a planner, get a permit-it was all there. Now I am even corrected with a snide correction if I happen to call a sub bureau or bureau by the wrong name. Where in the heck do you go with a plumbing question-Bureau of Environmental Services? The name is not even close for a layperson.

If you make a call after you try to figure out which department, bureau, section, "office" you should call, you always get a recorded message that says you'll maybe get a call back in one or two days. Of course, you'll wait around by the phone for that return call that takes even longer than the one or two days.

and the award goes to.....

At least the Mayor's Office is still the Mayor's Office.

My first call is always to 503-823-4000. It dials professional resource staff whose job is to find the right person in the right department for you. Whenever the Mayor or one of the other Charter Change proponents has said in a forum, "Citizens don't know who to call when they have a problem with city government", in the same time and with the same breath they could have said, "Right now, the only city number you need to know is eight-two-three-four-thousand." It's the same number for both city and county information, even.

The Planning Bureau and the old Bureau of Buildings (now Bureau of Development Services) were going to be merged in the "Blueprint 2000" process. Developers wanted them together, for the same reason they want the new form of government - only one polician and bureau director would matter, not two/five. Citizens lobbied hard to keep Planning (= deciding what we should do) separate from Development (= issuing permits for how to do it).

I agree Sustainability and Environmental Services could go together, but Environmental Services is already so huge the newer policy directions might get lost in all the sewer and clean water issues.

Jack --

Didn't you leave the letter "R" out of the title to this thread?

Heh.

I think the vast majority of employees of these bureaus are honest. But that "r" belongs somewhere up the chain of command.

My first call is always to 503-823-4000. It dials professional resource staff whose job is to find the right person in the right department for you.

Amanda's point is right on. Those folks do an awesome job, I use them all the time, and they really care about getting people to the right place.

Every bureaucracy is confusing. Ever deal with Sprint, AT&T, or, god help you, your satellite dish company?

And thank you, Jack, for your comment about "the vast majority of employees of these bureaus are honest." I think we are, and for most of us, we take "serving the public" to heart. Besides, we're also the public too, and we all know what it is to deal with the downsides of bureaucracy.

we all know what it is to deal with the downsides of bureaucracy.

In my experience, that is something that some Portland city employees forget after they've been on the job for a while.