Getting things done at City Hall
Those no-good troublemakers at Portland Copwatch say they've stumbled onto a fairly disturbing, albeit typical, sneak-around by the City of Portland in the process of looking at reforms for the police disciplinary "system":
On Thursday, April 17, four members of the Citizen Review Committee (CRC), which is charged with police oversight functions in Portland, will meet privately with Auditor Gary Blackmer to discuss changes to the complaint review system. The CRC is part of the Independent Police Review Division (IPR), which was recently criticized in a consultant's report for conducting too much of its business "behind the scenes." Perhaps inadvertently proving this point, the reason only four of the nine members are meeting with Blackmer is to avoid having a quorum and thus triggering public meetings requirements.The secret meeting came to light at the CRC meeting Tuesday night. The Auditor raised the issue that he wanted to address issues that were discussed when City Council accepted the consultant's report including:
-- An employee who would be able to conduct investigations, funded part-time by the Mayor's office;
-- Outreach plans including hiring an outreach consultant and assigning outreach to one or two staff members; and
-- A process of review for citizens whose complaints have been dismissed by IPR.
Once the Auditor opened up this discussion, CRC Chair Mike Bigham quickly told him that dialogue would take place "on Thursday." The discussion came to a halt. When a member of Portland Copwatch asked for clarification on what was happening Thursday, and whether there was a meeting that would be open to the public, Bigham responded by smiling at a fellow CRC member, shrugging, and calling Tuesday's meeting to a close without so much as a response.
"It is outrageous enough that a citizen body that has been accused of doing too much work 'behind the scenes' is holding a meeting about its own future that is closed to the public," said Dan Handelman of Portland Copwatch. "It is even worse that they would not even make the existence of that meeting public knowledge."
Information about the Thursday meeting between Blackmer and four CRC members was obtained in conversations after Tuesday's CRC meeting had ended.
| Posted at 10:19 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (6)
These sleazebags will never learn.
The whole "Independent" Police Review system needs to be scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up. The Portland Police Union has way too much power in this town and I believe a case could be made that they are a RICO organization.
Dan Handelman deserves huge props for putting in the hours he does to attend these meetings and expose the endless hypocrisy of the Citizens Rubberstamp Committee. Personally, whenever I have gone to the meetings, I have walked away thoroughly disgusted.
Posted by none | April 17, 2008 7:51 AM
How about a little irony here?
When carrying out audits, Mr. Blackmer and other government auditors are required to follow a recognized set of professional standards. In Mr. Blackmer's case at the City of Portland, he is required to follow "Government Auditing Standards", a publication developed by the General Accountability Office, the investigative arm of the Congress, in cooperation with other groups.
The foreword to the current version of the GAS states, "The principles of transparency and accountability for the use of public resources are key to our nation's governing processes."
Posted by Anonymouse | April 17, 2008 8:12 AM
Blackmer likes to play like he's such great
guy--honest as the day is long, etc. etc.--
and yet has long walked about City Hall with
dark cloud over him, as honest people don't
trust this clown to be the "real deal" and
I, for one, question his motives in so much
that he does. He is in the perfect job to
scam the system, as when it comes to doing a
scam job on the system, it's the guy that's
in control of the numbers crunching that is
able to pull it off flawlessly. Also, I do
think he's a racist that "plays" otherwise
as his "actions" betray his true heart when
it comes to covering for the racists idiots
at PPB/PPA.
Let's keep on eye on this character and
force him to earn our trust and respect.
Posted by long-time observer of Blackmer | April 17, 2008 10:33 AM
Let's keep on eye on this character and
force him to earn our trust and respect.
I've got a better idea. Let's kick this clown to the curb as soon as possible.
Posted by none | April 17, 2008 10:46 AM
Is there any other members of Portland Copwatch other than Dan Handleman? I just wondered because there seems to be a bunch of political "groups" out there who seem to be composed of only one person whose job it is to give a quote to newsmen opposing whatever the "other" guy is supporting.
Greg C
Posted by Greg C | April 17, 2008 3:42 PM
I guess that should have been "Are there other members" huh. :-(
Greg C
Posted by Greg C | April 17, 2008 3:43 PM