Portland water bureau sponsoring concerts?
So says the South Portland neighborhood guy in this writeup (large pdf file). Given that the bureau's being sued for deviating from its mission, one would think it would stay away from that kind of feel-good activity for a while.
| Posted at 6:47 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (8)
I don't see a problem here. As long as the program is Handel's Water Music Suite.
Posted by Allan L. | June 5, 2012 8:39 AM
The Water Bureau is helping the Willamette Park concert program as a payback for taking 3 city lots from the Park, by the tennis courts, for a new relocated pumping station. Park land is expendable if it's done right, just ask Leonard or Fish.
Paybacks are part of the Water Bureau's mission.
Posted by Lee | June 5, 2012 9:08 AM
The Water Bureau is only 1 of the 21 sponsors listed, but still...sponsoring a concert is definitely NOT delivering services for which fees are levied.
Posted by R1Ray | June 5, 2012 9:09 AM
...for a new relocated pumping station.
Curious, where was the former location of that pump station?
Posted by clinamen | June 5, 2012 10:17 AM
...probably on land that Homer and Co. wanted to build on.
Posted by pdxcad | June 5, 2012 10:23 AM
Lee has got it right.
The Bureau sponsors concerts at Powell Butte as pay back for the unnecessary construction of the Powell Butte II $137 million tank project, the design of which was awarded to the cozy consultant Glicker whom the Bureau earlier secretly hired under a five-year contract to assist in crafting the EPA "public health" regulation used to force unnecessary projects for no measurable public health benefit, create massive debt and further line the pockets of multinational corporations such as CH2M Hill and MWH global- corporations that have been on retainer for decades via an endless stream of consultant contracts.
Last month Shaff told a business journal that the PWB had removed all non-mission critical items from this budget, but so far the Water Bureau hasn't responded to my subsequent questions about current funding for maintenance of Randy's "hydro parks" or the funding for maintenance of the City's decorative fountains the number of which has increased in recent years. And the Bureau is still maintaining Randy's million dollar developer house (Water House) which a previous year Budget Committee was told would be sold to recoup ratepayer dollars.
Water Bureau employees have long privately complained about the endless dumping of the decorative fountain maintenance on Water Bureau employees when decorative fountains are a function of Parks- decorative fountains have nothing to do with production and delivery of safe drinking water. Most PWB line workers want the Bureau to be run as a utility focusing on maintaining existing facilities (not constructing new unnecessary facilities) and not as a funding source for other Bureaus or used as a slush fund for pet projects of the Commissioner in charge.
The problem is Bureau management and the lack of independent oversight.
Posted by f. jones | June 5, 2012 10:50 AM
In my opinion years of habits whether right or wrong have the water bureau thinking they can do what they want, and I might add that there has been very little in the way of consequences for them as a result of wrong headed decisions.
Posted by clinamen | June 5, 2012 11:45 AM
Clinamen, the present pumping station is just to the west a few blocks, across SW Macadam.
Posted by Lee | June 6, 2012 9:47 AM