Nice example he's setting. But I'd bet that the DA drops the charges. They don't go after other public employees.

Here comes the "panic attack" defense.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid...the chance to get off with a slap on the wrist and a traffic fine went out the window when he ran. If he was drunk he probably could have just gotten diversion. If he doesn't get prosecuted and lose his job over this something is seriously wrong.

There's a long way to go to catch up to the PPB, but speaking personally, Rick has most definitely screwed the pooch on this one. Nice guy, good investigator. And apparently the capacity for some really bad judgement, if the police account is correct.

No excuses on this one.

I figured torridjoe would comment on this case...since it involved a fellow dept employee.

The Fire Dept is indeed a posterchild for pathetic public Bureaus, between this guy, the FireDepot Kickboxer, and torridjoe, who wastes public taxpayer dollars sitting at his (public taxpayer paid) computer blogging at LoadedOrygun and commenting here, BlueOr and elsewhere. What a waste of public resources.

"The Fire Dept is indeed a posterchild for pathetic public Bureaus,"

Which explains why it's known nationally as one of the top fire departments in the country, and why it's consistently the highest rated bureau in the City, I guess.

700 people work for the Bureau. You might expect one of 700 to get arrested for something.

And Bunster, aka Torrid, city employee, ON TAXPAYER PAID SALARY, posts at 8:44 AM. You on vacation Mark? Mandatory break. Over on Loaded you posted continuously from 3:00 PM to after 3:30 PM. On break again? Over half an hour.

Heck, you are about the most egregious example of a public employee union member thumbing his nose at the people who pay his salary.

You're basically a thief.

Evidently you think sitting on your butt and being available for a phone call is what you are getting paid for..... and you can spend all your taxpayer paid time posting your political opinions.

MARK BUNSTER. Thief, leech and tick on the hide of the taxpayer.

That Mark Bunster guy is a really busy guy.

Kinda like that Wally guy on the Dilbert cartoon strip.

Portland, made famous a few years ago in the Doonsbury strip, now has their very own goof-off in a real life Dilbert strip.

What idiot at the Fire Dept manages Mark? Does he also have pointy hair? Is he as big a dunce as the pointy-haired Boss on Dilbert?

Just a bit of what Mark did yesterday at work:

From LoadedOrygun:
Betsy Johnson Accusers Exposed as Lying Pervs and Freaks
by: torridjoe
Thu Aug 23, 2007 at 08:00:00 AM PDT

From BlueOregon:
Posted by: torridjoe | Aug 23, 2007 10:04:26 AM
Posted by: torridjoe | Aug 23, 2007 11:18:02 AM
Posted by: torridjoe | Aug 23, 2007 2:31:01 PM
Posted by: torridjoe | Aug 23, 2007 4:43:55 PM
Posted by: torridjoe | Aug 23, 2007 4:52:57 PM

At 11:15 AM today CITY EMPLOYEE MARK BUNSTER... on the TAXPAYERS DIME.... posts a happy b-day to Earl Blumenauer over on LoadedO.

I am glad my property taxes went toward wishing the congressman a happy birthday thanks to MARK BUNSTER.

Here's my idea. Erik Sten is the commissioner in charge of the fire department.

Every time MARK BUNSTER STEALS FROM THE TAXPAYERS by posting during work hours let's e mail the link to ERIK STEN:

Erik@ci.portland.or.us

we should cc the fire chief also.

Folks, let's not make this the "bash Mark Bunster" thread.

It might help some of your crankier readers to know that the timestamp on a post does not necessarily reflect the actual time it was posted; rather that is the time it was PUBLISHED. Do you really think I sit around waiting for exactly 8:00:00 before hitting "submit?" Furthermore, if the post time is not pre-manipulated, it merely reflects when the posting window was opened--not when it was closed with a submit command. For instance, as regards the Blumenauer post, the link to the party announcement was received by email, dropped into a posting window...and left sitting that way until lunch.

But great conspiracy theorizing. There's still time to catch up with the Portlanders who think Bush is going to set off a dirty bomb during Noble Resolve, I bet.