Portland bribe "investigation" skips supervisors
How could Portland parking meter manager Ellis McCoy have been taking tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from contractors without his supervisors knowing about it? Did his managers know what was going on? Were they in on the graft? It's interesting that no one at City Hall is looking into those questions:
According to documents released to The Oregonian last year, city officials conducted at least a half-dozen investigations of McCoy, twice gave him written reprimands, and in 2009 suspended him without pay for an inappropriate relationship with a city vendor.But Anna Kanwit, the city's human resources director, said Monday that her office's investigation did not review management oversight of McCoy because "we were not charged with doing that." "In 20/20 hindsight," she said of managers, "perhaps they should have been more aggressive."
"Move along, folks; go to your homes. There's nothing to see here." Uh huh.
| Posted at 9:46 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (11)
But wouldn't he have been pressured to give up his supervisors once the feds started investigating him? The fact that he didn't cop a plea with the feds tells me he probably didn't have any good info for them.
Posted by Dave J. | November 6, 2012 10:02 AM
Forget it, Jack. It's just Stumptown.
Posted by ltjd | November 6, 2012 10:26 AM
"Kanwit". You mean "nitwit", or "NoKanWit".
Posted by mrfearless47 | November 6, 2012 10:38 AM
Dave J. has a good point. Howsever what about malfeasance among the supervisors?
Is that an issue that needs exploration? Yes, IMHO
Posted by paul | November 6, 2012 11:07 AM
Byzantine bureaucracy does have the advantage of everyone being able to point in all directions and say "but it wasn't our job" when something goes wrong.
Posted by Mr. Grumpy | November 6, 2012 11:50 AM
Explanation: Corruption is not in the system, it is the entirety of the system.
Posted by Leaving very soon | November 6, 2012 12:53 PM
"did not review management oversight of McCoy because "we were not charged with doing that."
Reminds me of that Seinfeld episode when they ask George if he had sex with the cleaning woman on the desk at work:
"Was that wrong? I gotta tell you if someone would've let me know, I would've said something."
Portland City Hall and hilarity ensues.
Posted by Steve | November 6, 2012 1:29 PM
The unfortunate truth is that no minority in local government can be fired no matter what his or her behavior.
Posted by karl | November 6, 2012 2:10 PM
"The unfortunate truth is that no minority in local government"
The only minority in govt are honest and truthful people.
I really don't think it'd matter about race. Look at the garbage Randy gets away with.
Posted by Steve | November 6, 2012 2:18 PM
Steve, if you're going to put quotes around something, it should be exactly what they said instead of your vague recollection of what they said. George's quote is much longer and funnier than what you had.
Posted by Nitpick | November 6, 2012 2:31 PM
You're right, I paraphrased. Actual quote:
"Was that wrong? Should I have not done that? I tell you I gotta plead ignorance on this thing because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing was frowned upon, you know, cause I've worked in a lot of offices and I tell you people do that all the time"
Posted by Steve | November 6, 2012 4:42 PM