Your tax dollars at work, cont'd
Here's an example of government at its finest: One Portland bureau has a p.r. flack whose job includes drafting up a statement informing the world that it supports the work of another city bureau. Then that other city bureau's p.r. flack gets paid to post a page on the internet thanking the first city bureau for its support.
When we read about the impending municipal bankruptcy, and people are moaning "How could this have happened?" some of us will know the answer.
| Posted at 2:24 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (12)
Gee, time to call the auditor's waste and fraud hotline.
Posted by Nonny Mouse | March 24, 2010 3:04 PM
Hmmm...the search for the appropriate term to describe this practice. "Logrolling" is a bit obsolete, and "circle jerk" is a bit tacky. What to do?
Posted by Texas Triffid Ranch | March 24, 2010 3:30 PM
I'd love to see a press release in which one city bureau doesn't support another:
Office of Management and Finance says Sunday Parkways are a waste of money. One of the bureau's many planners, Penny Pincher, notes, "With a backlog of unpaved roads, cops shooting kooks with box cutters, and a bond rating worse than Portugal's, OFM proudly declares Sunday Parkways to be a monumental waste."
Posted by Garage Wine | March 24, 2010 3:38 PM
I'd call it Flack Humping.
Posted by Bill McDonald | March 24, 2010 4:07 PM
You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.
And if it is the same PR flack doing all the writing, he or she would be a sock-puppet.
Posted by Mike M | March 24, 2010 5:18 PM
Hey, how do you think the PWB blog person gets any posts besides from co-workers?
Posted by Steve | March 24, 2010 6:29 PM
It's COP circle jerk.
Posted by LucsAdvo | March 24, 2010 6:53 PM
C'mon, Jack, it's just one less PDX journalist out of work.
Posted by Talea | March 24, 2010 7:42 PM
The old Chicago Post office building, which I think is the largest in the world and located in the south Loop, was auctioned off for $20.8 million, after the same bidder walked away from his earlier $45 million bid.
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2009/oct/22/business/chi-thu-post-office-daviesoct22
Posted by dang | March 24, 2010 9:20 PM
This is of course old hat.
Long ago these many government agencies discovered they could self report on their performance and get fellow agencies to assist.
You want to know what kind of job any of them are doing?
Got to their web site and they'll tell you.
And elected officials, who once upon a time long ago used to provide oversight, are just giddy to take their reports as gospel and applaud their performance. Especially when they cooperate with their agenda.
Posted by Ben | March 24, 2010 9:23 PM
Between and among sister agencies? How about internest, internesting?
Posted by Mojo | March 24, 2010 9:56 PM
Uh, Ben, you've got it backwards - it's often the elected officials telling the staff what to put in the reports - how do you think the Mayor found all that money to throw at bicycles from BES? He told the finance folks what to put in their report.
Posted by umpire | March 25, 2010 12:38 PM