City Hall on Chasse killing: misleading to the bitter end
Portland city commissioner Dan "Legend" Saltzman joined the city's police chief yesterday in gratuitously piling just a little extra manure onto the steaming heap that the city was already dealing with over the all-time-record $1.6 million settlement of the Chasse police killing case. "Legend's" comments included the following:
The total settlement amount of $1.6 million will come from the City of Portland's self-insured reserve and from our excess insurance carrier. There will be no impact on the settlement, on the city's general fund.Well, even if he had read the script correctly, that's a silly statement.
The self-insurance reserve account, established in 1976, consists of money that is taken out of various other city funds to pay liabilities, up to $1 million per claim. (The rest of the $1.6 million payment is covered by third-party insurance, for which the city also pays a premium, of course.) On the city's last annual accounting statement (slow, iffy load of the whole thing here), the self-insurance reserve took $9.4 million in cash from other funds. The general fund transferred $59.1 million to other funds; how much of the $59.1 million wound up in the $9.4 million self-insurance pot is not entirely clear, but surely it's a large number.
And unless the city is planning to operate in the future with a self-insurance reserve that's $1 million smaller than it was two days ago, the reserve fund will eventually have to be replenished for the Chasse settlement. Again, a lot of that is going to come from the general fund -- either that or your water and sewer bills. For Saltzman to say "There will be no impact" is like his good buddy, Little Lord Paulson, telling you "The PGE Park bonds are almost entirely paid off" -- you're smarter than that.
| Posted at 6:26 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (10)
NOTHING ever, never ever, ever, ever ever has an impact on the general fund.
Hope he was smiling when he lies - Probably learned that from his leader, Sam.
Posted by Steve | May 12, 2010 7:45 AM
Hey, free money. Me likey.
Posted by Allan l. | May 12, 2010 7:52 AM
Portland cityhall is one of the best examples of why there should be term limits, no more than two terms and you've got to go find someother place to mess up.
If it weren't for the money printing presses running hard, there would be more immediate consequences for the financial blunders of this bunch of fiscally imprudent commissioners.
Posted by Bob Clark | May 12, 2010 8:13 AM
Allan l. FTW!
And boo to term-limits. In case you haven't noticed, there's an infinite supply of idiot candidates but an all-too finite supply of good ones. Term limits is a meat ax that kills the good ones while doing nothing about the incestuous gigs that the turds get to serve their corporate masters directly when they finish serving them while in office.
Posted by George Anonymuncule Seldes | May 12, 2010 8:27 AM
And every local news outlet I've read this on (oregonian, kgw, trib) goes right along with the city's line that this money simply came down from heaven...unreal.
Jack - you're the man! Keep it up!
Posted by expop | May 12, 2010 8:53 AM
Good job with the numbers Jack! It's what I pointed out in your earlier story:
https://bojack.org/2010/05/money_isnt_everything_we_hope.html#comments
and I honestly believe Saltzman doesn't know the city is self- insured after 12 years in office!
Posted by Mary Volm | May 12, 2010 9:04 AM
"There will be no impact." That's the root of the whole problem but I am not talking money here.
Posted by Tom | May 12, 2010 9:09 AM
"In case you haven't noticed, there's an infinite supply of idiot candidates but an all-too finite supply of good ones."
Sorry, I'd rather take relatively weak idiots than entrenched ones with connections like Randy or Neil.
Besides, I'm thinking a random roll of the dice is better than what we have now. It only takes about 3 months for them to become them instead of us.
Posted by Steve | May 12, 2010 9:34 AM
We will see. Is the will of the people sufficient to enforce the laws on our officials? It only took our mayor one year to violate and take apart the city. Term limits won't stop these sorts. Kroger sided with him; the Oregon Legislature also sided with him on the illegal property tax abatements Jack reported on. We need to start higher on the totem to sweep it clean. We are a nation who trust in law, not in people and when that law only applies to the citizens we are in serious trouble.
Posted by Mike Courtney | May 12, 2010 9:40 AM
We are already paying for it through our water and sewer bills. 5% of them go to general fund under Utility License Fee. That's why there is no incentive to keep utility rates down. Each rate increase throws more money into general fund. Look for 13% water and 6% sewer increases in July.
Posted by Erik B. | May 12, 2010 11:12 AM