The city of Portland has some fairly strict rules about what can be hosted on public resources.

The main reason elected officials use their campaign funds to pay for their 'official city website' to run on non-city servers is so that do not have to abide by those restrictions. Namely, to use the site as a campaign resource.

There is a danger here for the public assumes that the site is an 'official city communication'. This is not the case as it is hosted elsewhere. More so, no backups of the site are kept by the city, since it is not on their servers. Most hosting companies do not provide backups, therefore once a change is made no record exists. No backups means no annoying legal request for changed information.

Does this sound a little familiar? Recall Sarah Palin using her private email account for State of Alaska business to subvert the public from having access to her communications.

The city of Portland should at the minimum have a page that alerts web visitors that they are leaving an official site and entering one that is paid by a political campaign.

---------------------------------------------

Proof that Sam's and the city's sites run on different servers follows:

### www.portlandonline.com paid for by City of Portland and running on city servers

ping www.portlandonline.com = 209.162.223.25

whois 209.162.223.25
City of Portland ESYST-209-162-223-0 (NET-209-162-223-0-1)
209.162.223.0 - 209.162.223.255

### www.commissionersam.com NOT paid for by City of Portland and NOT running on city servers

ping commissionersam.com = 208.70.162.243

whois 208.70.162.243

OrgName: General Pacific, Inc.
OrgID: GENER-33
Address: 5600 N.E. 122nd Blvd
City: Portland
StateProv: OR
PostalCode: 97230
Country: US

NetRange: 208.70.160.0 - 208.70.167.255

---------------------------------------------

For a while, the commissionersam.com site said that it was hosted by an outfit called PDXTC.

The 2005 press release linked to in my post was clearly issued from City Hall, and if I am not mistaken, many of the posts that appeared on commissionersam.com were written by city employees, and by Adams himself, on city time.

A June 2006 entry stated:

Site Information Page By Administrator

Welcome to the site information page. This page has basic information on our website including what it is built on, who built it, and our privacy/copyright policies.

This site is being hosted by PDXTC, a local web hosting company. It is built on the open-source Drupal framework.

Large thanks go out to Danny Toman and Benjamin Kaplin for helping with the site.

We remove content deemed to be offensive. No other moderation is performed. We believe in a free exchange of ideas and we do our best to read every comment posted. If you see something that you feel is offensive and should be removed, please email the administrator. All content, unless otherwise noted, belongs to the poster and we hold no responsibility for what is said. The views expressed in comments are not necessarily those of Commissioner Adams or his office.

Tricky dick!

"The city of Portland has some fairly strict rules about what can be hosted on public resources."

Does that include City Hall First Thursdays where alcohol is served and 2nd floor bathrooms?

Gotta love open government. I can hardly wait to see the other tricks Sam is going to start playing on the public.

I am beginning to notice the blogs are getting flash-mobbed by Friends of Sam now whenever anyone says anything about Sam that is not 100% in support. LIke the Facebook pages.

Wrong Steve,

Those are just impromptu manifestations of loyalty to the Great One.

Steveo,

You are wrongh. These are just improptu manifestations of the great loyalty we have for One Mayor.

Mr. Steve,

I believe you are mistaken when you suggest that flash-mobbing is going on here. There is certainly no flash-mobs in Portland, certainly not emanating from India, the only country with peaceful nuclear weapons.

Long live the Great Gay Hope, long live the Portland Mayor with a Vision.

Hip, hip, hurray...hip, hip, hurray...

Sam is soooo hot. Grrrrrrh.

I think you old farts are just jealous 'cause you aren't getting any.

//not a flash-mobber

The public information at the link below is full of interesting tidbits--like the date the domain was created. Let's see, what was happening around May, 2005...

http://whois.domaintools.com/commissionersam.com

"... notice the blogs are getting flash-mobbed by Friends of Sam ...."

S'funny, I notice 'the blogs' are getting flesh-gobbed by Foes of Sam.

And the internets thingie totally is, like, 'this is engaging why?' Which is what I mostly notice and spend eyesight for, since I don't hardly fit the prescription in the first two categories.

Uh, Tensy, I'm thinking you may have your own private category?

But prescribe, do you, resignation for Adams?

As I recall the City of Beaverton lost a lawsuit with Nike recently and part of the evidence came from city personnel's personal computers. Didn't the court rule that if you use personal (private) equipment like PCs and cell phones for public use it is subject to public records laws? Maybe someone should submit a public records request for the information from commissionersam?

The response to this has begun to fall in a variety of categories, too numerous to mention. Some base their remarks on inaccuracies such as Beau being Sam's intern etc...He wasn't. Beau didn't work for the city although he did end up on the Mayor's staff.

he did end up on the Mayor's staff.

Really? I hadn't heard that one before. What were his official duties?

Sorry, I'm in the category of "Can't take this seriously anymore." Hence the lame joke.

Beau worked in the Bureau of Maintenance: he was in charge of polishing knobs and cleaning blocked pipes.

Ok: that was clearly in bad taste. I promise to stop when hizzoner resigns.

Bill, I totally missed it. Thanks for pointing that out for me.

We need an Oregon law change to define public records as

Any recorded content pertaining to public business created by a public official, and any created by a private party supported by public funds and pertaining to public business for which the party is paid.

Here's an interesting page from the commissionersam site (soon to disappear), in which "beau b" plays sock puppet (scroll down):

https://bojack.org/images/beauonadamsblog.html

When you make pages like this disappear from the internet while you're under criminal investigation for a related matter, isn't that illegal?

I don't know. It seems actionable and arguable. Maybe not decideable.

Ben: No.

Now those pages won't disappear. Thanks Jack. Very interesting. I think it is illegal if Sam or any of his subordinates delete. I sure hope the Attorney General is good at making intricate time lines, because it is getting complicated.

Complicated? I guess so, but not in an intriguing way. It's like watching a mediocre movie and realizing you don't really care about any of the characters.

Well, according to Beau, Sam isn't a "tipical" "politican."

If I were buying a condo at the Wyatt in a deal facilitated by Breedlove, I'd be sure to check my contract for problematic misspellings first.

A good grasp of grammar (or ability/inclination to spell check) is apparently not among his many attractions and talents.

Beau sez, "This man is fantastic at what he does." Some would know better than others, I suppose.

Bill,

Do you think Beau got some good hands on experience in that position?