A couple of related stories out of Portland City Hall today: First, that quarter-inch of rain we got this morning has caused raw sewage to pour into the Willamette River, just in time to greet the Rose Festival fleet. Welcome, sailors, to the City That Works -- with Regularity!

Meanwhile, they're going to present the long-awaited "tweaks" to the city's voter-owed elections taxpayer campaign finance system to the City Council on Thursday afternoon. This is the system that will guarantee Fireman Randy's re-election, and Grampy's too, if he decides to stick around. About the only race it would make interesting would be the battle of the newcomers if Sten's or Adams's seat becomes vacant.

The changes to the "system" are designed to prevent a rerun of the last election's disastrous rollout in which two candidates, Emilie Boyles and Lucinda Tate, turned in phony signatures collected by "community activist" Vladimir Golovan. The city wised up in time to deny Tate her "clean money," but Boyles spent a bundle of it before being caught and paying some it (less than half) back to the city. Golovan has since been indicted for perpetrating fraud, but at last report he was selling his house and was missing court dates.

As usual, the City Council agenda site doesn't link you to the relevant documents, but blogger Ron Ledbury, a perennial foe of the city auditor, says he's got a copy of the proposed changes here. I'm sure Amanda Fritz, the only legit "clean money" challenger so far, will weigh in once she recovers from her flight back from England today.