Cha-ching! Portland City Hall keeps hiring consultants
With the City of Portland going broke over expensive employee pensions, you'd think it might try to take care of business on its own for a while, without running out to hire outside firms. But you'd be wrong! Yesterday we got news of a bunch of new consultant contracts about to go out. Here's three new ones for the parks bureau -- they're putting a total price tag of $1.45 million on them. At the bureau of sustainable planning and whatever (I think they handle zoning and garbage), here's a contract for another $1.45 million. And over at the water bureau, where Fireman Randy doles out the pork from his throne, here's five more of them, for a total of $1.9 million.
You math majors out there can see that that's $4.8 million in new consultant contracts in a single business day. (And don't forget the $2 million deal currently pending at the sewer bureau.) At this rate, the end of the city as a viable financial entity is nearer, much nearer, than we thought.
| Posted at 5:33 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (8)
I didn't know the sewer was only a bureau.
Posted by Lawrence | March 5, 2010 7:47 AM
It would seem, then, that consultants are not subject to the announced hiring freeze:
http://blogs.wweek.com/news/2010/03/04/city-hall-portland-implements-hiring-freeze-but-not-for-police/#comments
Posted by Gardiner Menefree | March 5, 2010 10:55 AM
Hey, don't forget the up to 25% cost increase escalator clauses built in they routinely ask for after receiving the contract. And, the practice of breaking them up so their dollar amounts don't have to go to Council in the first place. Gotta love it Randy. Just where are your money printing presses? Oh...that's right, my pocket. I can just hear Mr. Newlywed's patented chuckle at our expense,wondering how we believe it when even he doesn't.
Posted by big Kahuna | March 5, 2010 12:09 PM
Cha-ching is right!
How does it feel to be driven over a cliff
by a careless driver?
We need to take the keys away!
Any suggestions?
Posted by clinamen | March 5, 2010 12:30 PM
So much for the City's recently-announced freeze on hiring. Why fund a $50K staff position when you can contract with an outside consultant to do it for $200K? More brilliance from the clowns running our fair burg.
Posted by RJBob | March 5, 2010 12:50 PM
Hey, if you're not a part of the solution, there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem.
Posted by Bill Holmer | March 5, 2010 1:30 PM
Money to burn Jack....Money to burn! Again, not to sound like a busted record on repeat...but not one of those Yahoos at City Hall has ever ran a business. That is a big problem with how the dough is spent.
Posted by Mad as hell | March 7, 2010 6:40 AM
To Mad as Hell,
We should all be.
Posted by clinamen | March 7, 2010 11:28 PM