Pathological is the right word.

With some basic incompetence mixed in. I think he's a stuffed suit. I think he doesn't know how to add two numbers together, but just nods and acts like he knows what guys like Paulson are talking about.

If the Convention Center hotel pays for itself in five years then the recall happened nine weeks ago.

Scoutmaster Sam would still lie even if the truth got him out of trouble... This is just another bullet for the recall.

Like the neo-cons, they create their own reality.

I was so awed by Wheeler taking a responsible, circumspect and reality-based stance. Thank providence there is at least one adult among our local elected.

Adams' madness is becoming like a black hole -- sucking in everything within gravitational reach. It is just like Bush -- starting wrong and then compounding the damage at every turn --- guaranteeing that it will be not years, but decades or generations before we can dig ourselves out. After the final implosion, nobody will want to invest in Portland for another 40 years.

And the biotech research cluster in SoWa Tramsville is a robust success.

This if fraud.
Throw Creepy out.

The Convention Center is losing more money now than before the expansion which voters had rejected.
After the hotel, with voters not asked, the loss will be even greater not smaller.

Creepy is using Creepy numbers and Creepy lies to save his Creepy self.

The day he is escorted out of city hall there should be a grand gathering and celebration in Pioneer Square funded by city hall expense dollars.

And Randy,
You're not invited.

If this project could "pay for itself" in only five years, why the heck isn't some private developer champing at the bit to build it themselves? If the city's tax bite covers $200M, imagine what the operator's take would be.

This is why you don't elect a guy with a personal bankruptcy, and no experience working in the private sector, to run a city of 500,000 people.

it's okay. he's really, really sorry for misleading us abot this funding, and he's been "shaken to his core". he won't do it again. he's now working hard to regain our trust.

remember?

Okay, so $200,000,000 paid back over 5 years. That's $40,000,000 a year, $109,589 a day in room tax. Let's say each room generates $20 a night in tax (is that high? low? ) so that would be 5479 room stays a day, every day, for 5 years. I not certain that we as a city have that many stays a day now with all hotel rooms combined. Where do these people pull these numbers from? Yah, I know the answer to that.

The toughest thing when you're under investigation is to sit there doing nothing.

My latest theory is that this is a frantic, desperate, insane attempt to keep his mind on something else. His overly stressed-out brain can't deal with the possibility that he's seriously looking at indictment here. He's also energized by the anger he feels towards himself for screwing up like he did. Risking power for a 17-year-old? That has to hurt the political animal at the core of his soul.

I bet it probably started like that - as a simple diversion - but now it's evolved into something more as the pressure mounts. Maybe he's made one of those irrational subconscious fear-driven leaps where he believes if he just launches enough projects now, this legal thing will go away.

It's just a theory, mind you, but it mirrors the behavior of a musician friend of mine as he awaited a trip to court to have his suspended sentence revoked.

Oh yeah, the math is indeed interesting there. When the Nines can't fill up with rates of $99 per night in the heart of downtown, how in the world will this giant boondoggle CC hotel even begin to pencil out? Especially when inner-city and suburban hotels in this market are struggling to achieve 65% occupancy average for the year...
I know from being in the hotel business, as well as being a business traveller that it's more important to lodge near a vibrant city core, where food, entertainment and night life abound than to be close to where the meeting/convention is.

"I was so awed by Wheeler taking a responsible, circumspect and reality-based stance."

It's sad how something simple, like being responsible, has started to seem like some extraordinary and rare quality for politicians to have.

"I bet it probably started like that"

That's the problem, trouble aways startou as fun.

If you want my .05 psychiatric observations. Sam realizes he has nothing ouside of this job(unless you count yard work for Erik in Bend.)

So he gets in trouble with Beau and sees 50-50 Portland hates him and rolls the dice on a recall.

Then like Bush, he thinks if he spends as much as he can he'll be seen as the great giver - or if nothing else, as the only guy who can finish what he started. Heck, Saltzman thinks he can't do anything without Mayor McLiar's leadership.

To a guy like Sam, there is no downside to this scam: If it fails to generate the expected revenue and the finances come crashing down, history still logs him as the first openly gay mirror in a major city who faced a recall and lost - the MLS stadium and the Convention Center Hotel issues aren't even mentioned.

The upside (in his mind only): It succeeds, history logs him as the architect of it all, and his past indiscretions are forgotten.

Well, he's behaving as though his desired legacy is to be Portland's last gay mayor.

What is weird and upsetting is how much newfound respect I have for Nixon, or Spitzer or McGreevey, for anybody who had the courage to resign when they were supposed to. For even the most drama-hungry political animal, stepping up to publicly sacrifice one's reputation cannot be easy, with or without the possibility of resurrection. But at least somewhere deep in their calculating, predatory brains they had some notion that at some point it was irrefutably the right thing to do. Slight but true evidence of some impulse that is not Pure Appetite; there is a glint of judgment there, a glint of proportion and perspective. And they resigned.

Adams isn't doing anything more complicated than simply trying to bury his disadvantages under the massive, unstoppable force of spectacle. Walk in shouting and get people all worked up over whether a building should be detonated or a bridge should be built or whether soccer or fine art is more important, well, those earnest people will start earnestly debating the subject and may just forget the fact that you're not even supposed to be in the room to begin with.

There is something frantic in a slapstick way about it all, isn't there?
Picture Sam, Randy, and Saltzman bouncing around town as the 3 Stooges running from site to site yelling, "A hotel there, whoop, whoop, whoop, now a stadium over here."
"Shut up you idiot. Why I oughtta."
Two fingered eye jab blocked with the hand between the eyes.
"Hey, I know Curly! We need a Rose Quarter entertainment center."
(Whack!)
"Listen up knuckle-heads, and listen good: What we need is a convention hotel, see?"
Bonk. "Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk."
"Why I oughtta."

That's it! This is a 3 Stooges movie. The rich guy's son waltzes in and soon the Stooges are running around in circles trying to please him - but they screw everything up.
It's slapstick. Ahh, finally... I've been searching for a way to enjoy this.

Has Randy,Saltzman and our Mayor heard of 12% unemployment in Oregon or the second largest unemployment record in the USA ? How many jobs will this provide ? They must not read the Oregonian ( who by the way is cutting back in all the departments just so that they can stay a float )

Is there something wrong with using my taxes for schools and educating our young people. But then our public schools are not a good example of good education. Come to think of it i wish there was a way to send my taxes to a private school where education means something.

The city council members must be the result of our local public schools. Irresponsible and lack of good judgement

Maybe the council should have been at the Tea Party April 15th. Over 5,000 people attended Pioneer Square and voiced their concern about local goverment. Thanks to "FREE SPEECH"

This was my first rally and saw that many people were upset about local over-spending. The lesson i learned at the rally was that i'm not the only concerened citizen and that the city council members had better be a little concerened about the next elections and recalls.

THE PEOPLE OF PORTLAND ARE STANDING UP AND FIGHTING BACK......

I don't think this is Sam's idea. I think he's bought into the Cordish method of urban makeovers, where the goal is to reach "critical mass" in a project as soon as possible.

http://www.cordish4.com/

Cordish has a record of success in doing this. But can an "urban makeover" be successful during a deep recession? Can an "urban makeover" be successful without a casino? Besides the money, what price will Portland pay for an entertainment district in terms of culture and civic identity? Are saving the Made in Oregon sign and possibly placing an electric rose by the waterfront meant to be countervailing icons against the new vision for the Rose Quarter, what others have described as Cordish's "glitzy" or "Disney-type" entertainment districts? Can all of these nationwide projects can be successful, or will they be competing against each other at some point like the biotech centers and the biofuel factories? Portland already lost in those competitions.

Hi All,

Thank you for understanding that the recall is based on Sam's lack of public trust and political capitol to do the job of Mayor of Portland. Our fear that Sam is now only listening to those who are keeping him in power is being realized.

On July 1st we will file to recall him and start collecting signatures. Right now we are in the process of recruiting volunteers to help collect our goal of 50,000 signatures. If you have not yet visited and signed up to help at www.recallsamadams.com, please do as we need all of the volunteers we can get.

Thank you for keeping Sam Adams trust issues as a topic of conversation with your friends and family.

With your help we will remove him from office,

RecallSamAdams.com
Jasun Wurster

Jason, we really appreciate your hard work and dedication on this matter.
Realize also that in the event of a succesful recall, Leonard is waiting in the wings to launch a massive power grab.
I am concerned that no qualified, credible, outside candidates have spoken up or expressed interest in running.
Removing mayor McLiar is but the first step in fixing our corrupt city hall. I would hate to see the momentum stop there. We need a clean sweep that could only come from a full FBI investigation of Adams, Leonard, Paulson, Mazzioti, Homer, Gerding-Edlen, Hoffman, OHSU, PDC, and the whole slimy bunch who are perpetrating one enormous fraud after another on this city, while pocketing millions and shutting out the citizenry in every major developmental decision.

1. The bid will come in very low, making it look like the city is not on the hook for a lot on money.

2. Then the city will give the contractor an "ownership stake" in the hotel in exchange for some up front cash, making it look like an even better deal (ESPECIALLY IN A RECESSION). But as a condition of the deal, the city will compromise itself by agreeing to pay over a large portion of the visitor taxes to the new "owners" in the event the city declares them in default on the construction side of the project. This will make it effectively politically impossible for the city to declare the contractor in default, because it would dump the whole cost of the project onto the taxpayers.

3. Meanwhile the cost overruns will skyrocket - but the contractor won't pay the subs for the difference. It will point to the bond, the exclusive remedy since this is a public job and the subs cannot trap funds with liens. But the bonding company won't pay, because its duty to pay is only triggered by the city declaring the contractor in default. The city will hem and haw and blame the contractor in the press but the contractor will never be declared in default because the city will have long ago compromised itself.

IF YOU ARE A SUBCONTRACTOR ON THIS PROJECT YOU ARE BORDERLINE SUICIDAL. The scam is the same in all the cities. Think it can't happen? It just did:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/City_attorney_FaulknerUSA_cheated_subcontractors.html