Obviously, the PWB blog-mistress is absolutely swamped writing those stories about water bottles and stickers. It helps that Randy's new brother-in-law is a website programmer.

PWB has waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much money.

I've heard David from Welches would fit in well at PWB.

Any way to learn if any of these consulting contracts are going to retired public employees (and others in-the-know) in exchange for their silence?

Sure would like to see the list of retained consultants ODOT keeps.

Here is a beautiful template that should be used more fully:

"The Proposer further agrees to hold harmless, defend and indemnify the City for all costs, expenses and attorney fees that may be imposed on the City as a result of _________."

Insert "whatever"

"Proposer" shall include proposers of labor services.

Obviously Adams discovered millions in "savings" in "another pot of money"! Unicorns for everyone!

Sorry Jack, I usually agree with you but your off base here. The going rate if you hire an agency to manage your website is about $150 an hour in Portland. This is actually a decent deal. I work in the biz so I know this for fact.

Maybe your industry is gouging people. An outfit like the water bureau, with a legion of in-house webmeisters, should be doing this on its own. Even with benefits, it shouldn't cost more than $50 an hour.

Have to agree with Dave. I am usually completely in line with you Jack, but take a look at hourly pay of web programmer with the skill set in this posting with benefits and you will see that this is not out of line.

O.k., let me try this again for you slow people:

THE CITY

SHOULD NOT

BE USING AN OUTSIDE CONTRACTOR

FOR THIS JOB

AT ALL,

AT ANY PRICE.

Jack saying IT web talent should not cost $50 an hour would be like me saying a lawyer should never cost more than $80 an hour. Let me know where I can find one.

I don't know whether or not the city should be using an outside contractor for this position or not but the rate is hardly unreasonable. Keep in mind that a self-employed individual pays a 15.3% self-employment tax on top of all other required. That and they have no employer benefits to speak of. It looks good on the surface but it's pretty reasonable when all is considered.

I'm one of those consultants, (thankfully not for the city tho) and I agree with Jack. The city has a large enough staff to manage this kind of work internally. The only time a hired gun like me makes sense is a smaller organization that needs professional-level skills less than full time.

I'm betting the underlying issue is that bureaus can't figure out how to share staff across silo boundaries. I've worked with PDX city IT staff & they tend to be very good at their jobs. I've also worked with PDX city It management and... well, not so much.

And $83/hr? who are they kidding? They are going to get some recent CS major who can't find a job, therefore is a "consultant"

I have it on good info, that Jasun Wuster "a programmer" is available for far less.