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Best Of Portland: 2000
Restaurant Guide 2000-2001
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NEWS BUZZ

scoreboard | rogue of the week

 

HYPOCRISY IN BLUE?
Does the Portland Police Bureau have a double standard when it comes to high-ranking officers?

That's the question many cops are asking in the wake of a recent ruling by independent arbitrator Marvin Schurke, who characterized statements from Assistant Chief Bruce Prunk and Capt. Robert Kauffman in a paycheck dispute as "fiction or fabrication."

Shurke's decision sent a shock wave through Chief Mark Kroeker's troops. That's because if a line cop is accused of lying, he or she faces investigation and worse. Three officers have been fired for untruthfulness in the last three years.

But in the four weeks since the arbitrator's Feb. 21 ruling, no investigation has been initiated. Nor does one seem likely.

"I think untruthfulness, perjury is pretty strong language," says police spokesman Lt. Mike Hefley. "There is no internal investigation going on at this time."

But Robert King, president of the police officers union, says rank-and-file cops "expect action."

"We know what would happen in a case where this happened to an officer," he told WW. "There would be an investigation with potential discipline."

On Nov. 9, 1995, the bureau put Sgt. Mike Barkley on unpaid leave pending a criminal investigation into allegations of theft. Three years later, Sgt. Barkley was exonerated--but the bureau refused to fork over his back pay.

Blasting the bureau's decision, the arbitrator described a memo Capt. Kauffman wrote Dec. 15, 1995, as "revisionist history" that contradicted both Kauffman's subsequent testimony and what "the evidence clearly establishes."

The arbitrator also condemned an official letter, based on Asst. Chief Prunk's statements, as "a sequence of events that is both impossible and in conflict with the employer's current position."

The bureau is still negotiating a settlement with Sgt. Barkley. Prunk and Kauffman have been instructed not to comment. Sam Adams, chief of staff to Mayor Vera Katz, told WW that on Monday the chief agreed to review the ruling to see if further investigation is appropriate.

--Nick Budnick

Showdown in the West End
The smell of politics is wafting through the West End, as developer and parking mogul Greg Goodman pushes his plan to transform the gritty downtown district.

The rumble over the West End will come to a head March 27, when the Planning Commission votes on Goodman's proposal. The 62-block swath stretches from Portland State to Powell's Books and from I-405 to Park Avenue. Critics say Goodman's vision threatens the district's small businesses, low-income housing and gay nightlife (see "West End Story," Dec. 15, 1999).

Goodman is the prime mover behind a "Vision Plan," authored by the powerful Association for Portland Progress, that would rezone the West End, paving the way for commercial projects such as office towers and parking garages. Planning Commissioner Marcy MacInelly says the struggle over the West End is "one of the most intense...we've seen in a long time."

Currently, the city requires that all new buildings in the West End include some housing--the idea being to keep downtown vibrant at night. Unfortunately, development in the West End has been stagnant for more than 20 years.

Pointing out that the red-hot Pearl District had no government-imposed housing requirement, Goodman argues that abolishing the West End's restrictions will uncork a surge of development.

His vision has inspired widespread skepticism. Citing the brewery blocks project, the streetcar, and a proposed mega-development at Safeway, the city's Planning Bureau says the district's rebound has already begun.

Opponents say profit pressure from the rezoning would eventually wipe out the West End's affordable housing, spawn soulless parking garages and office towers, and turn the West End into a dead zone at night.

"The potential to make more money...is what's driving it," says low-income housing advocate Susan Emmons.

"That's not right at all," says Goodman, who contends his plan has adequate safeguards for low-income housing. "There's no intention to displace anybody."

--Nick Budnick

 

SCOREBOARD

WINNERS LOSERS

1. After more than a decade's absence, smelt returned to Columbia River tributaries, including the Sandy. So numerous are the diminutive salmonoids coursing upstream that netters may be forced to cook them up in massive ovens of shuttered aluminum plants along the Columbia, otherwise known as smelters.

2.The 2000 census brought official buenas noticias for Oregon's Latino community: Over the last decade, the number of Hispanics swelled to 275,000, or 8 percent of the state's total population, outpacing every other minority group.

3. They're here. They're queer. Give 'em your pocket change. That was the controversial message at OSU last week as a student government panel agreed to use student fees for a Queer Resource Center. The center's $7,000 annual budget pencils out to 15 cents per student per term.

 

1. Think nobody loves you? It could be worse. Try being the lone Forest Park gypsy moth who has set off a vicious round of debate on whether to fumigate the entire park.

2. Shirttail relatives of Fire Bureau brass better start searching for another greased pole to a firefighting job. Last week the firefighters union blasted outgoing fire chief Bob Wall's trainee program as cronyism in its purest form, leaving new chief Ed Wilson a steaming pile to scoop up on his first day on the job.

3. After last week's first-round elimination in the NCAA tournament, which capped a year of unexpected losses and an unexplained player revolt, U of O women's basketball coach Jody Runge vowed she'd be back next year. Unfortunately for her, athletics director Bill Moos makes that call--and he's not talking.

 

PORT'S DEEPENING CONTROVERSY
One of Portland's most controversial engineering projects--the proposed deepening of the Columbia River shipping channel--was dealt a setback earlier this month when Gov. John Kitzhaber nominated a conservationist to serve on the Port of Portland Commission.

Although he is a Republican, Astoria Port Commissioner Bob Eaton, 55, has street cred with greens. Currently executive director of the fish-friendly Marine Conservation Council, he spent 11 years at the helm of Salmon for All.

If confirmed, Eaton would replace Port Commission President Robert Walsh, whose 12-year tenure on the commission made him its senior member.

Eaton will bring a different perspective to the port than Walsh, who runs one of the state's largest construction companies.

Although Eaton is still formulating his position on hot-button issues such as dam breaching and dredging the Columbia, he acknowledges that Astorians don't share the Port of Portland's enthusiasm for deepening the channel to 43 feet from its current depth of 40 feet. "It would be difficult for me to stand up in this community [Astoria] and say I'm for deepening," Eaton concedes.

Although dredging fans may not love him, Eaton's GOP ties may give him a better chance in Salem than some of Kitzhaber's other recent nominees (such as bookseller Michael Powell, whose renomination to the port commission was rejected in 1997, triggering a legal battle).

Confirmation hearings before the Senate are expected next month.

--Nigel Jaquiss

 

ROGUE OF THE WEEK
Seen a rogue on the loose?
Contact our roguemeister,
John Schrag
jschrag@wweek.com

Since the beginning of the legislative session, House Speaker Mark Simmons has railed against Gov. John Kitzhaber's budget cuts to senior programs, higher education and state police.

We don't have any problem with that; in fact, we agree that some of the money should be put back. But Simmons, a Republican from Elgin, has never proposed where the cash should come from.

Last week Kitzhaber showed him. His adjusted budget restored some of the money to Simmons' pet programs. To make it work, the governor proposed paying off a $111 million debt the state owes to federal retirees. That, in turn, would reduce the state budget surplus enough to allow the state to keep part of the income tax "kicker" that otherwise would go back to taxpayers.

Senate President Gene Derfler, also a Republican, seems OK with the plan. Simmons, however, opposes the early debt payment, wanting instead to return all the kicker this year (and saddle the next Legislature with the debt).

Simmons seems to want it both ways. In 1999 he led the charge to refer Measure 88, which gave Oregonians a state tax break on their federal taxes. That cut $160 million from the 2001-2003 state budget, money that could have been used for all the programs he now is trying to save.

Rather than embrace the governor's plan, Simmons wants to find money in the mythical "waste, fraud and abuse" account. He has said repeatedly that there are savings hidden in the budget, but so far he has failed to come up with any. It's now mid-session--time for the Speaker to put up or shut up.