Ludlow wants to stop revolving door
The new chair of the Clackistan County board of commissioners, John Ludlow, is shining a light on something quite wrong that's gone on for too long:
At the end of November, [Ludlow] sat before the board as chairman-elect and questioned the wisdom of granting $2 million in incentives to the Clackamas-based company, of which half came from a state fund for retaining jobs. [Ann] Lininger and the rest of the board unanimously approved the deal over his objection....Lininger chose not to run for election. A month after leaving office, Oregon Iron Works announced she took a job as general counsel and vice president for compliance and strategic initiatives. No other commissioners in recent memory have made a similar jump to a private-sector job that does business with the county.
This is classic Portlandia, but while he's at it, Ludlow should take a look at the politicians' spouses as well. It would be really interesting for a reporter to take a survey of where our local politicians' spouses draw paychecks. Many of them are connected to people and companies that feast at the area's countless public troughs. It was like when Hillary was in the Senate -- you didn't bribe her, you just paid Willy $300,000 to give a speech.
This is a small, incestuous place.
| Posted at 10:42 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (7)
You are so right on-most of our politician's spouses work for so called Non-profit agencies that are being paid by Portlandia. Look them up and the internet and you will find the thread that ties them together.
Posted by GINNY | April 4, 2013 12:20 PM
Earl's wife is VP at NW Natural Gas.
You know the place - Where Neil G's hey-boys take naps all day.
I won't even hazard a guess on how many Senator/Rep's spouses have gravy jobs in DC.
Posted by Steve | April 4, 2013 2:34 PM
Steve, either that, or they work for companies directly affected by their spouses' legislation. When Phil Gramm was still in the Senate, it was of course pure coincidence that his wife Wendy was on the board of directors for Enron. It was also such pure coincidence that Phil pushed so much legislation that benefited Kenneth Lay and the rest of his crew that Phil was openly referred to as "the esteemed Senator from Enron" to his face. (I still say that he and Wendy both knew the extent of the fraud at Enron, regardless of what they claimed at the time, if only because of his sudden retirement in 2001. Years of being one of the most powerful members of the Senate, with all sorts of efforts to make sure that no credible candidate stood a chance against him, and it was pure coincidence that he decided to leave three months before Enron imploded. Sure.)
Posted by Texas Triffid Ranch | April 4, 2013 3:19 PM
Portland has always been a small incestuous place.
It is a real wonder there aren't more idiot children attending Ainsworth, Lincoln HS, and Catlin Gable schools than there already are....and have been for the last 5 generations.
I know, because I attended school with some of the idiot children 50 years ago!
The newish hipster crown thinks this is a big city, but it is not. One really has to be careful in this town or you could really insult someone.
I will miss the anonymity I have here when I choose to hurl insults! It has been great fun!
Posted by Portland Native | April 4, 2013 4:13 PM
That's about as cut and dry as can be. What a mess! Reminds me of Stanford's exposé "Portland Confidential".
Posted by Intercept Media | April 4, 2013 10:16 PM
It's no secret that Bruce Starr has been out front pimping the CRC project in Salem for a few years now.
But I haven't seen reported by any newspaper that Starr's wife worked for David Evans & Associates (the engineering firm that ran through $140million+ to design the bridge) for most of those years.
An enterprising reporter can connect the dots by asking the Oregon Government Ethics Commission for the last six Statements of Economic Interest filed by Starr.
Also check out some of the photos here before they are taken down:
http://www.acecoregon.org/PhotoGallery.php
Posted by A little birdy told me... | April 5, 2013 3:23 PM
Prime example is Commissioner Jim Bernard and his wife who is the director of County Tourism!!! WHAT??? He did not recuse himself when the commission voted to give a $4000.00 bonus to her---and the ethics committee said he has no conflict of interest with the PMLR (Mystery Train)!!! disgusting
Posted by ROADKING | April 7, 2013 3:39 PM